Aaron David Miller

Infobox Writer
name = Aaron David Miller


imagesize =
caption = Photo of Aaron David Miller
pseudonym =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1949|03|25
birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio
death_date =
death_place =
occupation =
nationality = American
period = 1980 - present
genre =
subject = Middle East policy and analysis
movement =
debut_works =
spouse = Lindsay
partner =
children = Jennifer, Daniel
relations =
influences =
influenced =


website =
footnotes =

Aaron David Miller (born March 25,1949) is a Middle East analyst, author, and negotiator. He is on the U.S. Advisory Council of Israel Policy Forum, is Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and has been an advisor to six Secretaries of State. Miller worked within the United States Department of State for twenty four years (1978-2003). Between 1988 and 2003, Miller served six secretaries of state 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 Seeds of Peace, an international youth organization, founded in 1993. In January 2006, he became a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. Miller published his fourth book, "The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace" in 2008 [http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780553804904] .

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. [cite encyclopedia
last = SSH
first =
title = Miller, Ruth Ratner
encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
publisher = Case Western Reserve University
location = Cleveland
date = 1998
url = http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=MRR
accessdate = 2008-03-20 ] [cite web
title = Our People
publisher = Forest City Enterprises, Inc.
url = http://www.forestcity.net/about_exec_s_miller.asp
accessdate = 2008-03-20 ] Miller lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with his wife Lindsay, herself a key force in Seeds of Peace [cite web
title = Board of Directors and Staff, Seeds of Peace
publisher = Seeds Of Peace
url = http://www.seedsofpeace.org/about/staff
accessdate = 2008-03-20 ] 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) [http://www.inheritingtheholyland.com/] 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 [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0807843245] [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/mid038.htm] [http://www.mepc.org/forums_chcs/archive.asp] .

Government career

Miller entered the Department of State in November 1978 as an historian in the Bureau of Public Affairs 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 [cite web
url = http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/mid038.htm
title = Statement by Special Middle East Coordinator Ambassador Dennis Ross on Hebron Agreement; January 15, 1997
accessdate = 2008-03-20
author = John Mather, M.D.
publisher = The Avalon Project at Yale Law School ] [cite book
first = Dennis | last = Ross
title = The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace
publisher = Farrar, Straus, Giroux
date = 2005-05-26
location = New York
pages = 880
url = http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B000F3UNRM/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
isbn = 978-0374529802] 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 [cite press release
title = Travel Of Aaron Miller To Middle East
publisher = Office of the Spokesman, U.S. Department of State
date = 2001-08-09
url = http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2001/4505.htm
accessdate = 2008-03-20] where he served as the Senior Advisor on Arab-Israeli negotiations in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to Secretary Colin Powell [cite press release
title = Address by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to the Seeds of Peace International Camp for Conflict Resolution
publisher = Office of the Spokesman, U.S. Department of State
date = 2001-08-13
url = http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2001/4537.htm
accessdate = ] . He resigned from the Department of State in January 2003 to become President of Seeds of Peace. [http://www.state.gov/s/p/of/abt/3436.htm]

After Government

In January 2006, Miller became a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=sf.profile&person_id=166535] 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 [http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/muchtoopromisedland/] .

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" [cite episode
title = Israel Prays and Holds Vigils For Ariel Sharon
url = http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0601/07/smn.02.html
series = CNN Saturday Morning News
airdate = 2006-01-07] [cite episode
title = Yassar Arafat Dies
url = http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/11/ltm.04.html
series = American Morning
airdate = 2004-11-11] , “Wolf Blitzer Reports”) [cite episode
title = Arafat's Condition Worsens
url = http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/04/wbr.01.html
series = Wolf Blitzer Reports
airdate = 2004-11-04] , “The Newshour with Jim Lehrer,” [cite episode
title = President Bush, Secretary Rice Outline Plans for Cease-fire
url = http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec06/role_07-31.html
series = The Newshour with Jim Lehrer
airdate = 2006-07-31]
FOX News [cite news
title = No Obvious Successor to Arafat
language = English
publisher = FoxNews.com
date = 2004-11-11
url = http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138239,00.html
accessdate = 2008-03-20] , “The NBC Nightly News,” “CBS Evening News,” "ABC World News", National Public Radio, the BBC [cite news
title = Arafat Gloomy on Mid-East Talks
language = English
publisher = BBC
date = 2000-04-07
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/705415.stm
accessdate = 2008-03-20] , Canadian Broadcasting Cooperation [cite episode
title = The Current for November 27, 2007
url = http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200711/20071127.html
series = The Current
airdate = 2007-11-27] , Al Arabiya, and Al Jazeera. In 2005 Miller was a featured presenter at the World Economic Forum in both Davos [http://www.weforum.org/en/KNContributors/index.htm?personid=138098] and Amman, Jordan. He has also lectured at Harvard University, Columbia University, New York University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Michigan, 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 [cite press release
title = Annual Report 2005-2006
publisher = United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
url = http://www.ushmm.org/museum/press/annualreport/2006/report.pdf
accessdate = 2008-03-20] . In 2005, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor [cite press release
title = Past Medalists
publisher = NECO
url = http://www.neco.org/profileList.php?list=m
accessdate = 2008-03-20] .

Criticism

A well known scholar on Middle East, Dr. Norman Finkelstein called Miller's 2008 book "a horrible book". He went on to describe Miller as a "complete imbecile". [http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=1877]

Bibliography

#"Search for Security: Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy, 1939-1949" (Paperback, University of Northern California Press, 1991) ISBN: 978-0807843246
#"PLO: Politics of Survival" (Paperback, Praeger Press, 1983) ISBN: 978-0275915834 [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0275915832 Amazon]
#"The Arab States and the Palestine Question: Between Ideology and Self-Interest" (Paperback, Praeger Press, 1986) ISBN: 978-0275922160
#"The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace" (Hardcover, Bantam Books, 2008) ISBN 978-0553804904

Articles

*The Abandonment [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702049.html]
*Annapolis Is Just the First Step [http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-miller26nov26,0,3142358.story?coll+la-opinion-rightrail]
*West Bank First: It Won’t Work [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/06/18/AR2007061801365.html]
*For Israel and Hamas, a Case for Accommodation [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/14/AR2006051400807.html]
*The Arab-Israeli conflict: Toward an Equitable and Durable Solution [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QZY/is_215/ai_n15950662]
*Israel's Lawyer [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200883.html]

Events

(All events hosted at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars unless otherwise noted)

"The Israelis and Their Politics", January 29, 2008 [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=342860]
"After Annapolis: Where do we go from here?", December 6, 2007 [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=320741]
"The Palestinians and Their Politics", October 29, 2007 [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=289965]
"America, the Arab World, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict", May 1, 2007 [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=233363]
"Options for U.S. Policy towards the Arab-Israeli Conflict", November 15, 2006 [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=207135]
"Assessing Developments in Israel & Lebanon", July 26, 2006
"Politics and Diplomacy: Next Steps in Arab-Israeli Peacemaking", May 10, 2006 [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=180177]
"Next Steps in the Middle East: Egyptian, Israeli, and Palestinian Perspectives", February 9, 2006 [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=168032]

References

External links

*Official site for the book "The Much Too Promised Land"
* [http://www.muchtoopromisedland.com]
*The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies [http://www.wilsoncenter.org]
*Seeds of Peace [http://www.seedsofpeace.org]
*Official site for the book "Inheriting the Holy Land" [http://www.inheritingtheholyland.com]