Dennis Ross speaks at a Gala Dinner hosted by the Transatlantic Institute.
Less than a week after the Annapolis Conference, key note speaker Dennis Ross, former US Presidential Envoy to the Middle East, offered insights into 'the new Middle East' to an audience of senior diplomats, NATO delegates, European Union officials and journalists. The evening's discussions were opened by EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, Ambassador Marc Otte and Director of Policy Planning in the Private Office of the Secretary General at NATO, Dr. Jamie Shea- Transatlantic Institute
Bio
Marc Otte
Marc Otte is the European Union's Special Representative to the Middle East peace process. Otte holds an MA in Political and Social Sciences, from the University of Leuven, 1969, and did post-graduate work at the university's Institute for Developing Countries. Afterwards he taught in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he later served in the embassy.
Over the next few decades he held various positions in the Belgian Foreign service, including the consul general in Los Angeles (1988-1992) and ambassador to Israel (1992-96).
Emanuele Ottolenghi
Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi is Executive Director at the Transatlantic Institute in Brussels. He previously taught Israel Studies at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and at the Middle East Centre of St. Antony's College, Oxford University.
He holds a degree in Political Science from University of Bologna, Italy, and a Ph.D. in political theory from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Since 1998 he is at Oxford.
His research focuses on Israeli domestic politics, specifically coalition and party politics, and elections, post-Zionism, the Arab-Israeli conflict (mainly the Oslo era), Europe's new anti-Semitism and European attitudes to the Middle East. He is currently finishing a book on Israel's electoral reforms in the 1990s.
Louis Perlmutter
Louis Perlmutter, a senior advisor to Corporate Partners, a private equity fund affiliated with the investment bank Lazard, is a retired senior partner of Lazard. He has been chairman of the board of trustees of Brandeis University and the American Jewish Congress, and the chairman of the executive committee of the United Nations Association of the U.S.A.
He is a director of the Charles H. Revson Foundation and his current memberships include the Council on Foreign Relations, board of fellows (directors) of Harvard Medical School, Board of Directors of Harvard Medical International, the advisory board of Foreign Affairs, trustee of the Blaustein Institute for Human Rights and the committee of visitors of the University of Michigan Law School. He has received honors from The Phoenix House Foundation, The Israel Policy Forum, The World Federation of United Nations Associations, and the American Jewish Committee.
His areas of expertise include international finance, economics, and foreign policy with a focus on the Middle East.
Ambassador Dennis Ross
Dennis B. Ross is an American author and political figure who served as the director for policy planning in the State Department under President George H.W. Bush and special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton.
The envoy and chief negotiator under both Republican and Democratic presidents, Ross was integral in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process during his tenure.
For more than twelve years, Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process and in dealing directly with the negotiations. A skilled diplomat, Ross was responsible in both the G.H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations for exploring all avenues and approaches to settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As an architect of the peace process, he helped the Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and brokered the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron in 1997. He facilitated the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace and also worked on talks between Israel and Syria.
Ross's memoir, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace tells the inside story of efforts to negotiate peace over the 1990s and outlines the key lessons to be drawn from that experience.
While having worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Ross himself is a Democrat. He remains a frequent commentator on Middle East issues and analyst on the outcome of current events. He is now counselor of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Dr. Jamie Shea
Jamie Shea is Director of Policy Planning in the Private Office of the Secretary General responsible for advising and assisting the Secretary General, senior NATO management, and the Council in addressing strategic issues facing the Alliance.
