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Dennis Ross

International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Experience

Dennis Ross, lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, is currently Distinguished Fellow and Counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For more than twelve years, during the Bush and Clinton administrations, Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process. He was instrumental in assisting Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement. He successfully brokered the Hebron Accord in 1997, facilitated the Israeli-Jordan peace treaty, and intensively worked to bring Israel and Syria together. 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. Ambassador Ross worked closely with former Secretaries of State James Baker, Warren Christopher, and Madeleine Albright. Prior to his service as Special Middle East Coordinator under President Clinton, Ross served as Director of the State Department's Policy Planning office in the first Bush administration. He served as director of Near East and South Asian affairs on the National Security Council staff during the Reagan administration, and as Deputy Director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment. He did his undergraduate and graduate work at UCLA, writing a doctoral dissertation on Soviet Decision-Making. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Syracuse University.