Ambassador Dennis Ross, who for the past decade played a leading role in shaping U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will speak at the 56th annual commencement ceremonies of Claremont McKenna College.
Serving in the first Bush and both Clinton administrations, Ambassador Ross played a decisive and unprecedented role in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He worked closely with Secretaries of State James Baker, Warren Christopher, and Madeleine Albright, and was instrumental in assisting the Israelis and Palestinians to reach the 1995 Interim Agreement and the 1997 Hebron Accord.
With a diplomatic style characterized by tenacity, imagination, and empathy, Ambassador Ross was awarded the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service by President Clinton, and also received the State Department's highest award. He is the author of The Missing Peace (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), the inside story of efforts to negotiate peace over the last decade and the key lessons to be learned from that experience. Currently director and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he is a foreign affairs analyst for the Fox News Channel and a frequent commentator in other national media.
Ceremonies, which are open to the public, take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 18.