Leader in Shaping Middle East Peace Process
to Teach at Marquette
Released:
Nov. 16, 2004
Marquette University is honored to welcome Ambassador Dennis
Ross as the 2004-05 Allis-Chalmers Distinguished Professor of
International Affairs. During his visit to Marquette, Ambassador
Ross will give public lectures, meet with students and faculty,
and teach International Politics of the Middle East in the upcoming
spring semester.
"Dennis Ross brings a wealth of experience to Marquette
as a scholar, teacher and public servant at the highest levels
of our national government,” says Dr. Duane Swank, chair and professor
of political science. “His extensive experience as a central
actor in the Middle East peace process will be invaluable to faculty
and students at the university. We are quite fortunate to
have him as a visiting professor.”
Ross is director and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy. For more than 12 years,
he dealt directly with the parties in Middle East peace negotiations
and led U.S. efforts in the administrations of both George H.
W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Ross was instrumental in assisting
Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 interim agreement,
successfully brokered the Hebron Accord in 1997, facilitated the
1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, and worked closely on Israeli-Syrian
peace negotiations.
Ross graduated in 1970 from the University of California at Los
Angeles, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decision-making.
He then went on to serve 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 during the
Reagan administration. He also served as director of the
State Department's Policy Planning office in the first Bush administration.
Ross is a famed scholar and author, whose most recent work, The
Missing Peace, is a comprehensive look at the Middle East
peace process. His list of awards is impressive, including
the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service,
the State Department's highest award, and honorary doctorates
from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Syracuse University.
The Allis-Chalmers Distinguished Professorship, endowed in 1981
by a generous grant from the Allis-Chalmers Corp., allows Marquette
to host prestigious scholars and practitioners of international
affairs for limited periods, typically one semester.
Ambassador Dennis Ross will be available to the media as a Middle
East expert upon his arrival in January.
