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Dennis Ross Featured at OCSF
Dennis Ross, a key diplomat in the Middle East peace process under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, will be the featured speaker at the Feb. 25 Occidental College Speakers Forum at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pasadena.
The title of Ross’ talk is “After Arafat: Prospects for a Middle East Peace.”
An 11:30 a.m. reception will precede the noon luncheon. The Ritz-Carlton is located at 1401 S. Oak Knoll Ave.
Tickets for the luncheon are $25 per person ($15 for Oxy GOLD members). For reservations or additional information, contact Jamie Murphy at (323) 259-1456 or jmurphy@oxy.edu. Ross’ appearance is being sponsored by the Marie S. Young International Affairs Lectureship.
For more than 12 years Ross, now the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East and in dealing directly with Israeli and Palestinian representatives. He helped both sides reach an interim agreement in 1995, successfully brokered the Hebron Accord in 1997, and facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty.
A scholar and diplomat with more than two decades of experience in Soviet and Middle East policy, 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. 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 honor.
A 1970 graduate of UCLA, Ross has published extensively on the former Soviet Union, arms control, and the greater Middle East. He is a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and New York Times.