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:Aaron David Miller

{{Short description|American Middle East analyst, author, and negotiator}}

{{Infobox writer

|name = Aaron David Miller

|image = Aaron David Miller high resolution Wilson Center.jpg

|caption = Miller in 2014

|birth_date =

|birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

|death_date =

|death_place =

|education = Tulane University
University of Michigan (BA, MA, PhD)

|period = 1980–present

|subject = Middle East policy and analysis

|spouse = Lindsay

|children = 2

|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.{{cite web|url=http://edition.cnn.com/profiles/aaron-david-miller|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217153635/http://edition.cnn.com/profiles/aaron-david-miller|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 17, 2017|title=Aaron David Miller - Global Affairs Analyst|work=CNN|access-date=19 April 2017}}

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.{{cite web |quote=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. |website=Politico |url=http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/01/should-rex-tillerson-resign-215664 |access-date=October 1, 2017 |title=Should Rex Tillerson Resign? |date=October 1, 2017 |first1=Aaron David |last1=Miller |first2=Richard |last2=Sokolsky |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506025113/http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/01/should-rex-tillerson-resign-215664 |url-status=live }} 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{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/books/16bron.html|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Advice After Two Decades of Arab-Israeli Diplomacy|first=Ethan|last=Bronner|date=April 16, 2008|archive-date=August 4, 2018|access-date=December 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804081437/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/books/16bron.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/chuck-hagel-hes-jewish/article/700553|newspaper=The Weekly Standard|title=Chuck Hagel: 'He's Jewish'|first=William|last=Kristol|author-link=William Kristol|date=February 10, 2013|access-date=November 4, 2017|archive-date=August 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804110226/https://www.weeklystandard.com/chuck-hagel-hes-jewish/article/700553|url-status=dead}} in Cleveland, Ohio, the eldest son of Ruth (née Ratner) and Samuel H. Miller.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Schmidt Horning|first=Susan|title=Miller, Ruth Ratner|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Cleveland History|publisher=Case Western Reserve University|location=Cleveland, Ohio|year=1998|url=http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=MRR|access-date=March 20, 2008|archive-date=September 8, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908021030/http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=MRR|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Our People |publisher=Forest City Enterprises, Inc. |url=http://www.forestcity.net/about_exec_s_miller.asp |access-date=March 20, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20060903231749/http://www.forestcity.net/about_exec_s_miller.asp |archive-date=September 3, 2006 }} He attended Shaker Heights High School, graduating in 1967.{{cite news |last1=Piorkowski |first1=Jeff |title=Shaker Heights High Hall of Fame inductees announced; young Jewish leaders to be recognized; more: Press Run |url=https://www.cleveland.com/university-heights/index.ssf/2018/08/press_run_39.html |access-date=4 August 2018 |newspaper=The Plain Dealer |date=3 August 2018}}

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,{{cite web|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/civilwar1/ |title=Civil War Collection |publisher=Quod.lib.umich.edu |date=2009-10-28 |access-date=2015-10-01}}{{cite web|url=https://bentley.umich.edu/legacy-support/civilwar/ |title=Michigan in the Civil War: A Guide to the Resources in the Bentley Historical Library|publisher=University of Michigan|access-date=August 9, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615182826/http://bentley.umich.edu/legacy-support/civilwar/ |archive-date=June 15, 2018 }} 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.{{cite book|title=Search for Security: Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy: Aaron David Miller: 9780807843246: Amazon.com: Books |isbn=0807843245 |last1=Miller |first1=Aaron David |year=1980 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press }}{{cite web|url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/mid038.htm |title=The Avalon Project : Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy |publisher=Yale.edu |access-date=2015-10-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001132926/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/mid038.htm |archive-date=2015-10-01 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.mepc.org/forums_chcs/archive.asp |title=Middle East Policy Council (Forums - Archive)|publisher=Middle East Policy Council|access-date=August 9, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080224135213/http://www.mepc.org/forums_chcs/archive.asp |archive-date=February 24, 2008 }}

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 worked as an analyst for Lebanon and the Palestinians in the State Department's 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.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

He helped Baker plan the Madrid Peace Conference of October 1991.{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Aaron David |date=2020-02-27 |title=I'm a veteran Middle East peace negotiator. Trump's plan is the most dangerous I've ever seen. |url=https://www.jta.org/2020/02/27/ideas/im-a-veteran-middle-east-peace-negotiator-trumps-plan-is-the-most-dangerous-ive-ever-seen |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}

In June 1993, Miller was appointed 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 |access-date=March 20, 2008 |first=John|last=Mather|publisher=The Avalon Project at Yale Law School |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531144623/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/mid038.htm |archive-date=May 31, 2008 }}{{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=May 26, 2005|location=New York City|page=880|url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B000F3UNRM/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link|isbn=978-0-374-52980-2|archive-date=December 28, 2024|access-date=September 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241228001927/https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B000F3UNRM/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link|url-status=live}} 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,{{cite press release|title=Travel Of Aaron Miller To Middle East|publisher=Office of the Spokesman, U.S. Department of State|date=August 9, 2001|url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2001/4505.htm|access-date=March 20, 2008|df=mdy-all|archive-date=February 5, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205223217/http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2001/4505.htm|url-status=live}} serving as the senior advisor on Arab–Israeli negotiations in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to Secretary of State 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=August 13, 2001|url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2001/4537.htm|access-date=June 24, 2017|df=mdy-all|archive-date=June 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616203425/https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2001/4537.htm|url-status=live}} He resigned from the Department of State in January 2003 to become president of Seeds of Peace.{{cite web |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/s/p/of/abt/3436.htm |title=Open Forum Speakers 2000 - present |publisher=U.S. Department of State |access-date=August 9, 2018 |archive-date=November 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117204550/https://2001-2009.state.gov/s/p/of/abt/3436.htm |url-status=live }}

After government

In January 2006, Miller became a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,{{cite web|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=sf.profile&person_id=166535 |access-date=August 9, 2018 |title=Aaron David Miller ǀ Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar |publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930185140/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=sf.profile&person_id=166535 |archive-date=September 30, 2007 }} 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.{{Cite news |last=Bronner |first=Ethan |date=2008-04-17 |title=Book Review: The Much Too Promised Land |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/arts/17iht-16bron.12101031.html |access-date=2025-01-23 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |title=The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace - Foreign Policy Research Institute |url=https://www.fpri.org/article/2008/05/the-much-too-promised-land-americas-elusive-search-for-arab-israeli-peace/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=www.fpri.org |language=en-US}}{{cite book |url=http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/muchtoopromisedland/ |title=The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace |first=Aaron David |last=Miller |publisher=Random House |location=New York City |date=2008 |isbn=978-1433210266 |archive-date=2008-03-01 |access-date=2008-03-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080301201739/http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/muchtoopromisedland/ |url-status=live }}

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,{{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|network=CNN|airdate=January 7, 2006|access-date=March 17, 2008|archive-date=May 22, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522035258/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0601/07/smn.02.html|url-status=live}}{{cite episode|title=Yassar Arafat Dies|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/11/ltm.04.html|series=American Morning|network=CNN|airdate=November 11, 2004|access-date=March 17, 2008|archive-date=June 11, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611133753/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/11/ltm.04.html|url-status=live}}{{cite episode|title=Arafat's Condition Worsens|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/04/wbr.01.html|series=Wolf Blitzer Reports|network=CNN|airdate=November 4, 2004|access-date=March 17, 2008|archive-date=March 25, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080325073817/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/04/wbr.01.html|url-status=live}} PBS,{{cite episode|title=President Bush, Secretary Rice Outline Plans for Cease-fire|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec06/role_07-31.html|series=The Newshour with Jim Lehrer|network=PBS|airdate=July 31, 2006|access-date=August 23, 2017|archive-date=January 19, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140119011337/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec06/role_07-31.html|url-status=live}} Fox News,{{cite news|title=No Obvious Successor to Arafat |website=Fox News |date=November 11, 2004 |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/no-obvious-successor-to-arafat |access-date=March 20, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414054622/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C138239%2C00.html |archive-date=April 14, 2008 |url-status=live }} the BBC,{{cite news|title=Arafat Gloomy on Mid-East Talks|website=BBC|date=April 7, 2000|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/705415.stm|access-date=March 20, 2008|archive-date=November 7, 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021107015520/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/705415.stm|url-status=live}} the CBC,{{cite episode|title=The Current for November 27, 2007|url=http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200711/20071127.html|series=The Current|network=CBC|airdate=November 27, 2007|access-date=March 17, 2008|archive-date=March 3, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303202948/http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200711/20071127.html|url-status=live}} and Al Jazeera.{{Cite web |title=Why does the US act as Israel's lawyer? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-bottom-line/2024/1/18/why-does-the-us-act-as-israels-lawyer |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Empire |title=Aaron David Miller: 'An effective broker' |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/program/empire/2013/8/26/aaron-david-miller-an-effective-broker |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}

Awards

Miller has received the Department of State's Distinguished, Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards.{{Cite web |date=2013-11-11 |title=“We Can't Fix It, And We Can't Leave": An Interview With Aaron David Miller - The Yale Review Of International Studies |url=https://yris.yira.org/interviews/we-cant-fix-it-and-we-cant-leave-an-interview-with-aaron-david-miller/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=yris.yira.org |language=en-US}} In 1998 he was on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Governing Council.{{Cite news |last=Gellman |first=Barton |date=1998-01-19 |title=HOLOCAUST MUSEUM TO INVITE ARAFAT |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/01/20/holocaust-museum-to-invite-arafat/4bedffc7-3ec7-45dc-acea-dd1038bf21ff/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |work=The Washington Post}} 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 |access-date=March 20, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915182713/http://www.neco.org/profileList.php?list=m |archive-date=September 15, 2008 }}

Personal life

Miller lives with his wife, Lindsay.{{Cite web|title=The peacemakers Ladies' Home Journal|website=Seeds of Peace|date=2000|url=https://www.seedsofpeace.org/the-peacemakers-ladies-home-journal/|quote=Lindsay Miller was in her early twenties when she spent a year in Jerusalem with her husband, Aaron David Miller, then a graduate student.|access-date=2020-10-03|archive-date=2021-10-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015160204/https://www.seedsofpeace.org/the-peacemakers-ladies-home-journal/|url-status=live}} They have two adult children, Jenny and Danny. Danny Miller is the founder of the Psychedelic Society of Brooklyn.{{cite news| last=Miller | first=Daniel | title=LSD could make you smarter, happier and healthier. Should we all try it? |newspaper=The Washington Post | date=1 April 2016 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/04/01/lsd-could-make-you-smarter-happier-and-healthier-should-we-all-try-it/ | access-date=25 October 2023}}

Bibliography

= Books =

  • Search for Security: Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy, 1939–1949 (Paperback, University of North Carolina Press, 1991) {{ISBN|978-0-8078-4324-6}}
  • PLO: Politics of Survival (Paperback, Praeger Press, 1983) {{ISBN|978-0-275-91583-4}}
  • The Arab States and the Palestine Question: Between Ideology and Self-Interest (Paperback, Praeger Press, 1986) {{ISBN|978-0-275-92216-0}}
  • The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (Hardcover, Bantam Books, 2008) {{ISBN|978-0-553-80490-4}}
  • The End of Greatness: Why America Can't Have (and Doesn't Want) Another Great President (Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) {{ISBN|978-1-137-27900-2}}

= Articles =

  • "The Abandonment: How the Bush Administration Left Israelis and Palestinians to Their Fate"{{cite news|last=Miller|first=Aaron David|title=The Abandonment|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=29 April 2007|access-date=25 October 2023|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702049.html|archive-date=27 December 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241227235922/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702049.html|url-status=live}}
  • "Annapolis Is Just the First Step" {{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-miller26nov26,0,3142358.story?coll+la-opinion-rightrail |title=Annapolis is just the first step|last=Miller|first=Aaron David|website=Los Angeles Times |date=November 26, 2007|access-date=August 9, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228031023/http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-miller26nov26%2C0%2C3142358.story?coll+la-opinion-rightrail |archive-date=February 28, 2008 }}
  • "West Bank First: It Won't Work" {{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/06/18/AR2007061801365.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229111429/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/06/18/AR2007061801365.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 29, 2018 |newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Article Washington Post|access-date=2017-08-23 }}
  • "For Israel and Hamas, a Case for Accommodation"{{cite news | last1=Malley | first1=Robert | last2=Miller | first2=Aaron David | title=For Israel and Hamas, a Case for Accommodation | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=15 May 2006 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/14/AR2006051400807.html | access-date=25 October 2023 | archive-date=18 August 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190818051411/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/14/AR2006051400807.html | url-status=live }}
  • "The Arab-Israeli conflict: Toward an Equitable and Durable Solution"{{cite web |author1=Miller, Aaron D. |title=Strategic Forum. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Toward an Equitable and Durable Solution |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA436578 |website=dtic.mil |access-date=25 October 2023 |date=July 2005 |archive-date=28 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241228001346/https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA436578 |url-status=live }}
  • "Israel's Lawyer"{{cite news | last=Miller | first=Aaron David | title=Israel's Lawyer | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=23 May 2005 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200883.html | access-date=25 October 2023 | archive-date=26 November 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126132702/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200883.html | url-status=live }}

References

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

External links

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20180805120252/http://muchtoopromisedland.com/ Official site for Aaron David Miller's book The Much Too Promised Land and his blog]
  • [http://www.wilsoncenter.org The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies]
  • [http://www.seedsofpeace.org Seeds of Peace]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20080225173431/http://www.inheritingtheholyland.com/ Official site for the book Inheriting the Holy Land]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20120916225403/http://bloggingheads.tv/search?participant1=Miller%2C%20Aaron%20David Video (with mp3 available) interviews/discussions involving Miller] on Bloggingheads.tv
  • {{C-SPAN|41563}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Aaron David}}

Category:American non-fiction writers

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:Seeds of Peace

Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni

Category:People from Shaker Heights, Ohio

Category:Ratner family

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)