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Aaron David Miller (born 1949) is a Middle East analyst, author, and negotiator whose twenty-four year career at the United States Department of State spanned five administrations (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bush 41, Bill Clinton, Bush 43). Between 1988 and 2003, Miller served six secretaries of state (George Shultz, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright, and Colin Powell) as an advisor on Arab-Israeli negotiations, where he participated in American efforts to broker agreements between Israel, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestinians. He left the Department of State in January 2003 to serve as president of the internationally recognized organization Seeds of Peace, which brings young people from the Middle East and South Asia into programs on coexistence and conflict resolution. In January 2006, he became a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC where he wrote his most recent book, The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (published by The Bantam Dell Publishing Group, 2008).

Personal/Family Background

Miller was born in Cleveland, Ohio on March 25, 1949, the eldest son of Samuel H. and Ruth Ratner Miller, both known for their civic, political and philanthropic work in the Jewish community and beyond, in Cleveland and on the national level. Miller lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with his wife Lindsay, herself a key force in Seeds of Peace since its inception. They have two children: Jennifer, author of Inheriting the Holy Land: An American’s Search for Hope in the Middle East (Ballantine, 2005)[1] and an aspiring writer and journalist, and Daniel, a graduate of Princeton University with a degree in astrophysics.

Education

Miller began his undergraduate career at Tulane University and spent a semester at the University of Warwick on a history honors exchange program before graduating from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in 1971. Continuing on toward an M.A. in Civil War history, Miller changed fields to Middle East and American diplomacy and spent 1973 to 1974 in Jerusalem studying Arabic and Hebrew. He completed his Ph. D. in 1977. His dissertation, Search for Security: Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy, 1939-1949 was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1980, and in paperback in 1991.

Government Career

Miller entered the Department of State in November 1978 as an historian in the Bureau of Public Affair’s Office of the Historian where he edited the documentary series Foreign Relations of the United States. In November 1980, he became the State Department’s top analyst for Lebanon and the Palestinians in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). Awarded an International Affairs Fellowship by the Council on Foreign Relations, he spent 1982-1983 at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies and the CFR in New York where he wrote his second book, The PLO and the Politics of Survival. The following year he retuned to INR and served a temporary tour at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan before joining the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff in 1985. Between 1985 and 1993, Miller advised Secretary of State Shultz and Baker, helping the latter plan the Madrid Peace Conference of October 1991.

In June 1993, Miller was appointed as the Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator in an office headed by Dennis Ross and charged by President Clinton with managing the Arab-Israeli negotiations. For the next seven years, Miller worked as part of a small interagency team where he helped structure the U.S. role in Arab-Israeli negotiations through the historic Oslo process, multilateral Arab-Israeli economic summits, Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty, and final status negotiations between Israel and Syria and between Israel and the Palestinians at Camp David in July 2000. Miller continued work on the Arab-Israeli issues in the George W. Bush administration where he served as the Senior Advisor on Arab-Israeli negotiations in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to Secretary Powell. He resigned from the Department of State in January 2003 to become President of Seeds of Peace.

After Government

In January 2006, Miller became a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he planned and participated in programs on the Middle East and Arab-Israeli issues. In 2008, he completed his fourth book, The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace, an insider’s look based on 160 interviews with former presidents, secretaries of state, Arabs, and Israelis, American Jews, Arabs, and evangelical Christians on why America succeeded and failed in Arab-Israeli diplomacy over the past forty years.

Media and Public Speaking

Throughout his career, Miller has made frequent media and speaking appearances as an expert on Arab-Israeli and Middle Eastern issues, including on CNN (“American Morning,” “Wolf Blitzer Reports,”) “The Newshour with Jim Lehrer,” FOX News, “The NBC Nightly News,” “CBS Evening News,” “ABC Evening News,” National Public Radio, the BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Cooperation, Al Arabiya, and Al Jazeera.

In 2005 Miller was a featured presenter at the World Economic Forum in both Davos and Amman, Jordan. He has also lectured at Harvard University, Columbia University, New York University, University of California at Berkeley, The City Club of Cleveland, Chatham House, and The International Institute for Strategic Studies.

His articles and op-ed pieces have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The International Herald Tribune.

Awards

Miller has received the Department of State’s Distinguished, Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards. Between 1998 and 2000, he was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Governing Council. In 2005, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Bibliography

1. Search for Security: Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy, 1939-1949 (Paperback, University of Northern California Press, 1991) ISBN: 978-0807843246
2. PLO: Politics of Survival (Paperback, Praeger Press, 1983) ISBN: 978-0275915834
3. The Arab States and the Palestine Question: Between Ideology and Self-Interest (Paperback, Praeger Press, 1986) ISBN: 978-0275922160
4. The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (Hardcover, Bantam Books, 2008) ISBN: 978-0553804904

Articles

• The Abandonment [2]
• Annapolis Is Just the First Step [3]
• West Bank First: It Won’t Work [4]
• For Israel and Hamas, a Case for Accommodation [5]
• The Arab-Israeli conflict: Toward an Equitable and Durable Solution [6]
• Israel's Lawyer [7]

External Links

• Official site for the book The Much Too Promised Land [8]
• The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies [9]
• Seeds of Peace [10]
• Official site for the book Inheriting the Holy Land [11]

The following events are organized in part by Aaron David Miller at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

2008

January 29 (with the International Crisis Group)

“The Israelis and Their Politics”
Speakers:

• Yehuda Ben Meir, Senior Research Associate, Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, and Former Member of the Israeli Knesset
• Nimrod Novik, Senior Vice President, MERHAV Group of Companies and Former Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Shimon Peres
• Dov Weissglas, Senior Partner, Weissglas-Almagor and Former Bureau Chief and Special Foreign Affairs Advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Moderators:

• Robert Malley, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, International Crisis Group
• Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center.

2007

May 1

“America, the Arab World, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict”
Speakers:

• Samuel W. Lewis, Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel
• Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center
• Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, University of Maryland and non-resident Senior Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution

October 29 (with the International Crisis Group)

“The Palestinians and Their Politics”
Speakers:

• Mustafa Barghouti, Founder and Director of the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute (HDIP), and former Palestinian Information Minister
• Yezid Sayigh, Professor, King's College London
• Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, and Senior Research Fellow, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University
• Moderators:
• Robert Malley, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, International Crisis Group
• Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center.

December 6

“After Annapolis: Where do we go from here?”
Speakers:

• Sallai Meridor, Israeli Ambassdor to the United States
• Afif Safieh, head of the PLO Mission to the United States
• Moderator: Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center.

2006

February 9 (Director’s Forum)

“Next Steps in the Middle East: Egyptian, Israeli, and Palestinian Perspectives”
Speakers:

• Nabil Fahmy, Egyptian Ambassador to the US
• Daniel Ayalon, Israeli Ambassador to the US
• Afif Safieh, Head of the PLO Mission to the US

Moderator:

• Aaron David Miller, Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar

May 10 (Gildenhorn Middle East Forum with the American Task Force on Palestine)

“Politics and Diplomacy: Next Steps in Arab-Israeli Peacemaking”
Speakers:

• Ziad Abu-Amr, Elected Member of Parliament (2006), Former Minister of Culture, Palestinian Territories
• Nabil Amr, Former Minister of Information and Former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Palestinian Territories
• Nahum Barnea, Kreiz Visiting Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, The Brookings Institution; Columnist and Senior Political Analyst with Yediot Ahronot, Israel
• Zalman Shoval, Twice Former Ambassador of Israel to the U.S.; Former Member of the Foreign Ministry, Israel
• Yasser Abed Rabbo, Politician and Member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, Palestinian Territories
• Shlomo Ben-Ami, Former Foreign Minister, Israel
• Ahmed Maher el-Sayed, Former Foreign Minister, Egypt
• Marwan Muasher, Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Jordan
• H.R.H. Prince Turki al-Faisal, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States
• Moderators:
• Ellen Laipson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Henry L. Stimson Center
• Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center

July 26

“Assessing Developments in Israel & Lebanon”
Speakers:

• Aaron David Miller, Woodrow Wilson Center scholar, author, negotiator
• Soli Ozel, Istanbul Bilgi University
• Hadi Semati, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center; Professor of Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Tehran University, Iran
• Barbara Slavin, Senior Diplomatic Report, USA Today; Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center
• Moderator: Robert Litwak, Director, Security Studies Program, Woodrow Wilson Center

November 15 (Gildenhorn Middle East Forum)

“Options for U.S. Policy towards the Arab-Israeli Conflict”
Speakers:

• Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center
• Yasser Abed Rabbo, Member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, Palestinian Authority
• Matan Vilnai, Labor Member of Israeli Knesset
• Galia Golan, Professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya
• Amjad Atallah, founder and President of Strategic Assessments Initiative
• Dennis Ross, Counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
• Itamar Rabinovich, President of Tel Aviv University
• Murhaf Jouejati, Director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs
• Hisham Melhem, Washington Bureau Chief for the Lebanese daily An-Nahar