Please join us as we welcome U.S. diplomat and author Dennis Ross to give the 2024 Helen and Daniel Sonenshine Lecture, followed by audience Q&A. The event will take place in the beautiful AU Museum at the Katzen Arts Center.

Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He also teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. For more than twelve years, Amb. Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He served two and half years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, spending the first 6 months of the Administration as the special advisor on Iran to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Prior to his service as special Middle East coordinator under President Clinton, Amb. Ross served as director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff in the first Bush administration. He played a prominent role in U.S. policy towards the former Soviet Union, the unification of Germany and its integration into NATO, arms control negotiations, and the 1991 Gulf War coalition. During the Reagan administration, he served as director of Near East and South Asian affairs on the National Security Council staff and deputy director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment.

This program is co-sponsored by the Meltzer Schwartzberg Center for Israel Studies, Kogod School of Business and Sine Institute for Policy and Politics.

Helen and Daniel Sonenshine Lecture

The annual Helen and Daniel Sonenshine lecture was created by Israel Studies Council member Helen N. Sonenshine and her husband, Dr. Daniel E. Sonenshine. Helen (economics) and Dan (biology) are both retired professors at Old Dominion University.

2024 Sonenshine Lecture by Ambassador Dennis Ross