Political Scientist Michael McFaul Confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Russia

This is cool.

McFaul's an accomplished scholar and has taken his expertise right to the top of the diplomatic side of things.

From Josh Rogin, at Foreign Policy, "Meet the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul."

And McFaul gets a shout out from Michael Rubin at Commentary, "Russia Resets Relations… With Syria."

(Here's one of the classic McFaul pieces, read widely in graduate school in the 1990s: "A Tale of Two Worlds: Core and Periphery in the Post-Cold War Era.")