August 24, 2004
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu

Ambassador Dennis Ross presents the revealing lecture
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle
East Peace at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Dennis Ross
• The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace
• Ambassador Ross was the chief Middle East peace negotiator for the United States for 12 years
• The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies
• Tuesday, September 28
• 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public $8 / UCSB students $6
• Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535

Ambassador Dennis Ross, the chief Middle East peace negotiator for both President George H. W. Bush and President Bill Clinton, will deliver the lecture The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace on Tuesday, September 28 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. Ross’s presentation, based on his recent book of the same name, will recount the search for enduring peace in that troubled region with unprecedented candor, vividness and insight. This event is part of the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies.

Former President Clinton states that Dennis Ross’s book “is the definitive and gripping account of the sometimes exhilarating, often tortured twists and turns in the Middle East peace process, viewed from the front row by one of its major players. No one worked harder for peace than Dennis. He gave it everything he had and served our nation very well. Now he has provided us with a rich account of what happened that is essential to understanding both the past and possible paths to the future.”

Dennis Ross is counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process and in dealing directly with the parties in negotiations. A highly skilled diplomat, Ambassador Ross was instrumental in assisting Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement; he also successfully brokered the Hebron Accord in 1997, facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, and intensively worked to bring Israel and Syria together.

A scholar and diplomat with more than two decades of experience in Soviet and Middle East policy, Ambassador Ross worked closely with 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. In that position, he played a prominent role in developing U.S. policy toward the former Soviet Union, the unification of Germany and its integration into NATO, arms control negotiations, and the development of the 1991 Gulf War coalition. During the Reagan administration, he served as director of Near East and South Asian Affairs on the National Security Council staff and as deputy director of the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment. Ambassador Ross was awarded the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service by President Clinton, and Secretaries Baker and Albright presented him with the State Department’s highest award.

A 1970 graduate of UCLA, Ambassador Ross wrote his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decision-making, and from 1984 to 1986 served as executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford Program on Soviet International Behavior. He has received UCLA’s highest medal and has been named UCLA alumnus of the year. He has also received honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Syracuse University.

Courtesy of Borders Books, books by Dennis Ross will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Dennis Ross is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, the Department of Religious Studies, Hillel and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. Tickets for the event are $8 for the general public and $6 for UCSB students. They are on sale now can also be purchased at the door, if still available.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.