Aaron David Miller

Last updated
Aaron David Miller
Aaron David Miller high resolution Wilson Center.jpg
Miller in 2014
Born Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Education Tulane University
University of Michigan (BA, MA, PhD)
Period1980–present
SubjectMiddle East policy and analysis
SpouseLindsay
Children2
Relatives Max Miller (nephew)

Aaron David Miller is an American Middle East analyst, author, and negotiator. He is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, focusing on U.S. foreign policy. He previously was vice president for new initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and has been an advisor to both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state. He is a Global Affairs Analyst for CNN. [1]

Contents

Miller worked for the United States Department of State for 24 years (1978–2003). Between 1988 and 2003, Miller served six secretaries of state as an advisor on Arab-Israeli negotiations, participating in American efforts to broker agreements between Israel, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestinians. He left the State Department in January 2003 to serve as president of Seeds of Peace, an international youth organization founded in 1993. In January 2006, Miller joined the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., first as public policy scholar, and later as vice president for new initiatives. [2] In 2014, Miller published his fifth book, The End of Greatness: Why America Can't Have (and Doesn't Want) Another Great President.

Background

Miller was born to a Jewish family [3] [4] in Cleveland, Ohio, the eldest son of Ruth (née Ratner) and Samuel H. Miller. [5] [6] He attended Shaker Heights High School, graduating in 1967. [7]

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 American Civil War history, [8] [9] Miller changed fields to Middle Eastern 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. [10] [11] [12]

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 1982–83 at the 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 returned 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 Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker, helping the latter plan the Madrid Peace Conference of October 1991. [13]

In June 1993, Miller was appointed Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator. [14] [15] For the next seven years, he worked as part of a small interagency team where he helped structure the U.S. role in Arab–Israeli negotiations through the Oslo process, multilateral Arab–Israeli economic summits, the 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 Arab–Israeli issues in the George W. Bush administration, [16] serving as the senior advisor on Arab–Israeli negotiations in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to Secretary of State Colin Powell. [17] He resigned from the Department of State in January 2003 to become president of Seeds of Peace. [18]

After government

In January 2006, Miller became a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, [19] 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 40 years. [20] [21] [22]

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, [23] [24] [25] PBS, [26] Fox News, [27] the BBC, [28] the CBC, [29] and Al Jazeera. [30] [31]

Awards

Miller has received the Department of State's Distinguished, Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards. [32] Between 1998 and 2000, he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Governing Council. [33] In 2005, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. [34]

Personal life

Miller lives with his wife, Lindsay. [35] They have two adult children, Jenny and Danny. Danny Miller is the founder of the Psychedelic Society of Brooklyn. [36]

Bibliography

Books

Articles

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References

  1. ↑ "Aaron David Miller - Global Affairs Analyst". CNN . Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  2. ↑ Miller, Aaron David; Sokolsky, Richard (October 1, 2017). "Should Rex Tillerson Resign?". Politico . Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2017. Aaron David Miller is vice president for new initiatives and a distinguished scholar at the Wilson Center, and the author of The End of Greatness: Why America Can't Have (and Doesn't Want) Another Great President.
  3. ↑ Bronner, Ethan (April 16, 2008). "Advice After Two Decades of Arab-Israeli Diplomacy". The New York Times . Archived from the original on August 4, 2018. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  4. ↑ Kristol, William (February 10, 2013). "Chuck Hagel: 'He's Jewish'". The Weekly Standard . Archived from the original on August 4, 2018. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  5. ↑ Schmidt Horning, Susan (1998). "Miller, Ruth Ratner". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Cleveland, Ohio: Case Western Reserve University. Archived from the original on September 8, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Our People". Forest City Enterprises, Inc. Archived from the original on September 3, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  7. ↑ Piorkowski, Jeff (3 August 2018). "Shaker Heights High Hall of Fame inductees announced; young Jewish leaders to be recognized; more: Press Run". The Plain Dealer . Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  8. ↑ "Civil War Collection". Quod.lib.umich.edu. 2009-10-28. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  9. ↑ "Michigan in the Civil War: A Guide to the Resources in the Bentley Historical Library". University of Michigan. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  10. ↑ Miller, Aaron David (1980). Search for Security: Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy: Aaron David Miller: 9780807843246: Amazon.com: Books. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN   0807843245.
  11. ↑ "The Avalon Project : Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy". Yale.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-10-01. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  12. ↑ "Middle East Policy Council (Forums - Archive)". Middle East Policy Council. Archived from the original on February 24, 2008. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  13. ↑ Miller, Aaron David (2020-02-27). "I'm a veteran Middle East peace negotiator. Trump's plan is the most dangerous I've ever seen". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2025-01-23.
  14. ↑ Mather, John. "Statement by Special Middle East Coordinator Ambassador Dennis Ross on Hebron Agreement; January 15, 1997". The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. Archived from the original on May 31, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  15. ↑ Ross, Dennis (May 26, 2005). The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace. New York City: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. p. 880. ISBN   978-0-374-52980-2. Archived from the original on December 28, 2024. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  16. ↑ "Travel Of Aaron Miller To Middle East" (Press release). Office of the Spokesman, U.S. Department of State. August 9, 2001. Archived from the original on February 5, 2009. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  17. ↑ "Address by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to the Seeds of Peace International Camp for Conflict Resolution" (Press release). Office of the Spokesman, U.S. Department of State. August 13, 2001. Archived from the original on June 16, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Open Forum Speakers 2000 - present". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  19. ↑ "Aaron David Miller ǀ Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar". Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  20. ↑ Bronner, Ethan (2008-04-17). "Book Review: The Much Too Promised Land". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-01-23.
  21. ↑ "The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace - Foreign Policy Research Institute". www.fpri.org. Retrieved 2025-01-23.
  22. ↑ Miller, Aaron David (2008). The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace. New York City: Random House. ISBN   978-1433210266. Archived from the original on 2008-03-01. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
  23. ↑ "Israel Prays and Holds Vigils For Ariel Sharon". CNN Saturday Morning News. January 7, 2006. CNN. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011. Retrieved March 17, 2008.
  24. ↑ "Yassar Arafat Dies". American Morning. November 11, 2004. CNN. Archived from the original on June 11, 2007. Retrieved March 17, 2008.
  25. ↑ "Arafat's Condition Worsens". Wolf Blitzer Reports. November 4, 2004. CNN. Archived from the original on March 25, 2008. Retrieved March 17, 2008.
  26. ↑ "President Bush, Secretary Rice Outline Plans for Cease-fire". The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. July 31, 2006. PBS. Archived from the original on January 19, 2014. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
  27. ↑ "No Obvious Successor to Arafat". Fox News . November 11, 2004. Archived from the original on April 14, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  28. ↑ "Arafat Gloomy on Mid-East Talks". BBC . April 7, 2000. Archived from the original on November 7, 2002. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  29. ↑ "The Current for November 27, 2007". The Current. November 27, 2007. CBC. Archived from the original on March 3, 2008. Retrieved March 17, 2008.
  30. ↑ "Why does the US act as Israel's lawyer?". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2025-01-23.
  31. ↑ Empire. "Aaron David Miller: 'An effective broker'". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2025-01-23.
  32. ↑ ""We Can't Fix It, And We Can't Leave": An Interview With Aaron David Miller - The Yale Review Of International Studies". yris.yira.org. 2013-11-11. Retrieved 2025-01-23.
  33. ↑ Gellman, Barton (1998-01-19). "HOLOCAUST MUSEUM TO INVITE ARAFAT". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2025-01-23.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  34. ↑ "Past Medalists" (Press release). NECO. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  35. ↑ "The peacemakers Ladies' Home Journal". Seeds of Peace . 2000. Archived from the original on 2021-10-15. Retrieved 2020-10-03. Lindsay Miller was in her early twenties when she spent a year in Jerusalem with her husband, Aaron David Miller, then a graduate student.
  36. ↑ Miller, Daniel (1 April 2016). "LSD could make you smarter, happier and healthier. Should we all try it?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  37. ↑ Miller, Aaron David (29 April 2007). "The Abandonment". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 27 December 2024. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  38. ↑ Miller, Aaron David (November 26, 2007). "Annapolis is just the first step". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on February 28, 2008. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  39. ↑ "Article Washington Post". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on December 29, 2018. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  40. ↑ Malley, Robert; Miller, Aaron David (15 May 2006). "For Israel and Hamas, a Case for Accommodation". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 18 August 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  41. ↑ Miller, Aaron D. (July 2005). "Strategic Forum. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Toward an Equitable and Durable Solution". dtic.mil. Archived from the original on 28 December 2024. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  42. ↑ Miller, Aaron David (23 May 2005). "Israel's Lawyer". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
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