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DENNIS ROSS
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Dennis Ross
American ambassador Dennis B. Ross served as the director for policy planning in the State Department under President George W. Bush, and as as special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton, who awarded him the Presidential medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service. Prior to his service in the Clinton administration, Ross was director of the State Department's Policy Planning office during the G. H. W. Bush administration, and had a prominent role in shaping U.S. policy toward the former Soviet Union, the unification of Germany and its integration into NATO, and the development of the Gulf War coalition. During the Reagan administration, he served as director of Near East and South Asian Affairs on the National Security Council and as Deputy Director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment. Himself a Democrat, Ross has nevertheless been integral in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process in both Democratic and Republican administrations. In 1995, he helped the Israelis and Palestinians to reach the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and in 1997 he brokered the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron. Ross also facilitated the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace and has worked on talks between Israel and Syria.
He has written about his efforts to negotiate peace during the 1990s in his memoir, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004). He is a frequent commentator on Middle East issues on radio and television programs, including Fox News, where he is Foreign Affairs Analyst. His commentary has appeared in the Washington Post and the New York Times, and his first column at the New Republic , titled "Statecraft," was published in 2007. Born in 1948 in San Francisco and raised in Marin County, California, Ross received both his BA and his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decision-making. He has received that intitution's highest honor, the UCLA Medal, as well as honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Syracuse University and Amherst College. From 1984-1986, Ross served as executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford Program on Soviet International Behavior. He is the first chairman of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, and has taught at Brandeis and Georgetown Universities. Currently, he serves as counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Ideas recorded on: 9/12/07
He has written about his efforts to negotiate peace during the 1990s in his memoir, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004). He is a frequent commentator on Middle East issues on radio and television programs, including Fox News, where he is Foreign Affairs Analyst. His commentary has appeared in the Washington Post and the New York Times, and his first column at the New Republic , titled "Statecraft," was published in 2007. Born in 1948 in San Francisco and raised in Marin County, California, Ross received both his BA and his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decision-making. He has received that intitution's highest honor, the UCLA Medal, as well as honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Syracuse University and Amherst College. From 1984-1986, Ross served as executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford Program on Soviet International Behavior. He is the first chairman of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, and has taught at Brandeis and Georgetown Universities. Currently, he serves as counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Ideas recorded on: 9/12/07
Interests
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Policy & Politics
12/27/2007
Description: Ross mourns an atmosphere so poisonous that Democrats and Republicans can't agree on the basics.
Transcript: Well I think the one thing I would like to see changed is the kind of poisonous atmosphere – that everything is seen in zero sum terms. We’ve lost kind of the capacity to create areas and incentives that Democrats and Republicans basically can agree on. And everything seems to be . . . seems to have fallen victim to kind of polarization. And I think we have to . . . we have to end polarization. Democrats and Republicans have different philosophies, different identities. That’s fine. That’s part of what debates are about. But there’s a lot of areas where there should be commonalities. And where there are big issues, you ought to be able to forge commonalities. We ought to be able to forge what would be a common approach on climate change. We ought to be able to afford what would be a common approach on Iraq. We ought to be able to afford what will be a common approach on healthcare. These are big priorities where we have to deal with fundamental challenges now to the country. When you’re dealing with fundamental challenges, there ought to be enough common ground that you reach understandings. And I think it’s . . . We’ve found certainly in the last almost seven years now that the polarization has become so acute that it’s pretty hard to do the kinds of things where otherwise, you know, you should . . . you should be able to find that consensus. And I look at myself, I had senior positions . . . political appointee positions in Republican and Democratic administrations alike. That’s unthinkable in Washington today. That has to change. We should be able to go back to the point where you can have people who are seen as being sufficiently professional that are in political appointees regardless of their political identification. And that . . . that we’ve lost.
Recorded on: 9/12/07
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