Dennis Ross
Dennis B. Ross (born November 26, 1948) is an American diplomat and author. He served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W. Bush, the special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton, and was a special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia (including Iran) to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.[1] Ross is currently a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think tank,[2][3] and co-chairs the Jewish People Policy Institute's board of directors.[4][5]
For the member of the U.S. House of Representatives, see Dennis Ross (politician).
Dennis Ross
November 26, 1948
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Early life and education[edit]
Ross was born in San Francisco and grew up in Belvedere, California.[6] His Jewish mother and Catholic stepfather raised him in a non-religious atmosphere.[7] Ross graduated from University of California, Los Angeles in 1970 and did graduate work there, writing a doctoral dissertation on decision-making in the Soviet Union.[8] He became religiously Jewish after the Six-Day War.[7] In 2002, he co-founded the Kol Shalom synagogue in Rockville, Maryland.[7]
Career[edit]
1970s–1993[edit]
During President Jimmy Carter's administration, Ross worked under Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in the Pentagon. There he co-authored a study recommending greater U.S. intervention in the Persian Gulf region "because of our need for Persian Gulf oil and because events in the Persian Gulf affect the Arab–Israeli conflict."[9] During the Reagan administration, Ross served as director of Near East and South Asian affairs in the National Security Council and Deputy Director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (1982–84).[8]
Ross returned briefly to academia in the 1980s, serving as executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford program on Soviet international behavior from 1984 to 1986.[8]
In the administration of President George H. W. Bush, Ross was director of the United States State Department's Policy Planning Staff, working on U.S. policy toward the former Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany and its integration into NATO, arms control, and the 1991 Gulf War.[8] He also worked with Secretary of State James Baker on convincing Arab and Israeli leaders to attend the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid, Spain.[7]
Affiliations[edit]
Ross co-founded the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former CIA director R. James Woolsey Jr., and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform Mark Wallace.[40] He is currently on the advisory board of UANI as well as the Counter Extremism Project.[41][42]