Tuesday 2/14
Amb. Dennis Ross
A force shaping America's middle east policies since Bush the elder was President ...mideast policies in the Trump Presidency.
It has been widely reported that in their face-to-face meetings around the transition of power from President to President, Barack Obama told Donald Trump, the most dangerous country in the world to American interests was North Korea.
The spotlight on Pyongyang makes sense of your main criterion is – what could be the world’s most imminent source of instability.
Stipulating that relations with Russia and China may be more consequential than those with countries on the high-risk list for sudden instability…and allowing that Kim Jong-Un, a.k.a. “the nut with the nuke” may indeed make North Korea #1 on that list…numbers 2 through 10 may all be found on the map of the Middle East.
In no particular order, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen are all in the shambles of war, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey; Egypt, Libya and Israel are all locations from which uncontrolled outbreaks of terrorism, internal and international conflict. or outright war cannot be ruled out.
For close to 40 years now, Amb. Dennis Ross has been among the most respected and most influential shapers of American policies for the Middle East. Starting in the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, Amb. Ross has worked inside, or been heard from the outside of all 6 Administrations that preceded Donald Trump’s.
READING ROOM
Ambassador Dennis Ross is counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Prior to returning to the Institute in 2011, he served two years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, and a year as special advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process and dealing directly with the parties in negotiations.
