Dennis Ross

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Ross speaking at Emory University.
Ross speaking at Emory University.

Dennis B. Ross (b. November 26, 1948 in San Francisco) is an American author and political figure who served as the director for policy planning in the State Department under President George H.W. Bush and special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton. The envoy and chief negotiator under both Republican and Democratic presidents, Ross was integral in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process during his tenure.

For more than twelve years, Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process and in dealing directly with the negotiations. Ross was responsible in both the G.H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations for exploring ways to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As an architect of the peace process, he helped the Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and brokered the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron in 1997. He facilitated the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace and also worked on talks between Israel and Syria.

Ross's memoir, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace tells the story of efforts to negotiate peace over the 1990s and outlines the key lessons to be drawn from that experience. His 2007 book, Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World, criticizes the administration of President George W. Bush for its failure to use the tools of statecraft to advance U.S. national interests. While having worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Ross himself is a Democrat.[1] He remains a frequent commentator on Middle East issues and analyst on the outcome of current events. He is now counselor of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

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[edit] Personal life

Ross was born on November 26, 1948, in San Francisco. He is married and has three children. According to his book, he was raised in Marin County, California, by his Jewish mother and Catholic stepfather, who maintained a non-religious household atmosphere. Ross did his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and did graduate work in political science at the same institution, focusing on study of the Soviet Union.

[edit] Career

A scholar and diplomat with more than two decades of experience in Soviet and Middle Eastern policy,[citation needed] Ross worked closely with Secretaries of State James Baker, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright. While not listed in his official biography, according to the "The Truth about Camp David" by Clayton Swisher, Ross co-founded the AIPAC-sponsored Washington Institute for Near East Policy in the 1980's. [1]

Prior to his service as Special Middle East Coordinator under President Clinton, Ross served as Director of the State Department's Policy Planning office during the G.H.W Bush administration. In that position, he played a prominent role in US policy toward the former Soviet Union, the unification of Germany and its integration into NATO, arms control negotiations, and the development of the Gulf War coalition. He served as director of Near East and South Asian Affairs on the National Security Council staff during the Ronald Reagan administration, and as Deputy Director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment.

In 1981, following the election of President Ronald Reagan, the newly appointed U.S. National Security Advisor Richard V. Allen was put in charge of assembling the Reagan administration's foreign policy advisory team. Allen offered Paul Wolfowitz the position of Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. In this position Wolfowitz and his newly selected staff, which included Scooter Libby, Francis Fukuyama, Ross, Alan Keyes, Zalmay Khalilzad, Stephen Sestanovich and James Roche, were responsible for defining the Reagan administration's long-term foreign policy goals.

Ross returned briefly to academia in the 1980s, serving as executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford program on Soviet International Behavior from 1984-1986.

Ross (right) with Ehud Barak in 1999.
Ross (right) with Ehud Barak in 1999.

During his years of trying to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations he was criticized by people on both sides of the conflict. Palestinians made repeated references to the fact that he is Jewish, and some right-wing conservative Israelis branded him "self-hating" — each questioning his ability to be unbiased.[2][2] Some of his articles have been published by both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sources.[3][4] In their 2006 paper The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, John Mearsheimer, political science professor at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, academic dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, named Ross as a member of the "Israeli lobby" in the United States.[3] Ross in turn criticized the academics behind the paper.[3]

[edit] After politics

Currently, Ross is counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is the first chairman of a new Jerusalem based think tank, the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, funded and founded by the Jewish Agency. In the fall of 2005, taught a class in Mid-East Peace at Brandeis University, and taught it again at Georgetown University in the fall of 2006. In Spring 2007 he taught Strategic Negotiation and Statecraft at Georgetown and is teaching a similar course in Fall 2007. In Spring 2008, he is teaching a course in statecraft at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Ross is a Foreign Affairs Analyst for the Fox News Channel in addition to being a frequent commentator in The Washington Post and The New York Times. Ross's first column at The New Republic, "Statecraft", was published on April 9, 2007.[4]

[edit] Awards and honors

President Clinton awarded Ross the Presidential medal for "Distinguished Federal Civilian Service" and Secretaries Baker and Albright presented him with the State Department’s highest award. Ross has received the UCLA Medal, the university's highest honor. He has also received honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Syracuse University and Amherst College.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Missing Peace, Dennis Ross Interviewed By Nonna Gorilovskaya, Mother Jones October 20, 2004
  2. ^ Tired are the peacemakers: tales from the Arab-Israeli negotiating table | Washington Monthly | Find Articles at BNET.com
  3. ^ a b Clyne, Meghan. Kalb Upbraids Harvard Dean Over Israel, New York Sun, March 21, 2006. Accessed August 17, 2007.
  4. ^ STATECRAFT, A NEW COLUMN, Ways and Means

[edit] External links

[edit] Interviews

[edit] Bibliography

From The Boston Globe

From Foreign Affairs

From Foreign Policy

From The Jerusalem Post

From The New Republic

From The New York Times

From USA Today

  • "Arafat's death can breathe life into peace process", Yasser Arafat has dominated the Palestinian national movement for the past 40 years. He has been a fixture on the landscape of the Middle East. He came to embody the Palestinian cause and was determined that no other Palestinian figure could emerge as a possible alternative to him. November 10, 2004
  • "The danger of a Sharon exit", Life after Sharon will not be so simple, particularly as Palestinians prepare to hold elections Wednesday and Hamas, the Islamist terrorist organization, is poised to do well. January 23, 2006
  • "A moment of truth for Syria", During the nearly 30-year rule of Hafez Assad, Syria came to control Lebanon and used terrorist groups Hezbollah, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to exert pressure (and at times reduce it) on others in the region. His son, Bashar, who has been the Syrian president for the past five years, seems to lack his father's guile and understanding of limits that need to be respected. November 8, 2005
  • "An opening in the Mideast", President Bush declared in Europe that the world cannot rest until there is peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Certainly he knew that Europeans would welcome such words. But I suspect this was less a tactical gesture to the Europeans and more a statement of intent, reflecting his commitment to act on what he sees as an opportunity for promoting peace. March 2, 2005
  • "U.S. should help construct an 'Arab umbrella'", In order to prevent the current crisis in the Middel East from growing, the United States must work with the Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians and others who seem to recognize that Iran is manipulating Hezbollah and Hamas for its purposes. Such an "Arab umbrella" could justify in deploying the Lebanese army to Israel's border. July 18, 2006

From The Wall Street Journal

From The Washington Post

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Missing Peace, Dennis Ross Interviewed By Nonna Gorilovskaya, Mother Jones October 20, 2004
  2. ^ Tired are the peacemakers: tales from the Arab-Israeli negotiating table | Washington Monthly | Find Articles at BNET.com
  3. ^ a b Clyne, Meghan. Kalb Upbraids Harvard Dean Over Israel, New York Sun, March 21, 2006. Accessed August 17, 2007.
  4. ^ STATECRAFT, A NEW COLUMN, Ways and Means