Thirty years ago this month, the United States and the Soviet Union co-sponsored the Madrid Peace Conference, an unprecedented event that brought together all of the parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict. This conference launched Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations, as well as multilateral working groups that tackled regional issues, while also laying the groundwork for the Israel-Jordan peace treaty brokered by the Clinton administration in 1994.

American University’s School of International Service (SIS) and the Center for Israel Studies (CIS) are pleased to host a special event commemorating the Madrid Peace Conference, featuring three expert panelists with decades of experience in Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

Hanan Ashrawi is a Palestinian leader, legislator, activist, and scholar who served as a member of the Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace process, beginning with the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference . She was appointed as the Palestinian Authority Minister of Higher Education and Research (1996), but she resigned from the post in protest at the non-implementation of reform plans in governance and peace talks (1998). Prior to that, she was Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Birzeit University. Making history as the first woman to hold a seat in the highest executive body in Palestine, she was elected as member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 2009, from which she resigned in December of 2020. As a civil society activist, she founded MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (1999) and continues to serve as head of its Board of Directors. She also founded the National Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN), and she is the founder and Commissioner of the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) since 1994.

Yossi Beilin has decades of executive political experience in Israel, including as the Chairman of the Meretz-Yachad Party from 2004-2008 and throughout the years as Minister of Justice, Religious Affairs, Economy and Planning, and the Office of the Prime Minister. He also has parliamentary experience as a member of the Knesset for the Meretz-Yachad Party and the Labor Party, and was a member of the following Knesset committees: Constitution, Law, and Justice; Foreign Relations and Defense; the Advancement of the Status of Women. Since his time in politics, he founded Beilink International Affairs Ltd., an international consulting firm, where he is chairman of the board and president. He is also the chairman of the steering committee of H. L. Education for Peace for the Geneva Initiative in Israel, and the chairman of Hillel Students Organizations in Israel.

Daniel Kurtzer is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. During a 29-year career in the US Foreign Service, Ambassador Kurtzer served as the United States Ambassador to Israel and as the United States Ambassador to Egypt. Kurtzer was a member of the Middle East peace team for Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Secretary of State Warren Christopher. He played an instrumental role in formulating and executing American policy, in particular helping to bring about the Madrid peace conference. Following that breakthrough, Kurtzer was named as the coordinator of the multilateral peace talks; served as the US representative to the bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and Syria; and chaired the US delegation to the multilateral refugee negotiations. Kurtzer is the co-author of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East, co-author of The Peace Puzzle: America’sQuest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011, and editor of Pathways to Peace: America and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

Guy Ziv (moderator) is a professor in the School of International Service's U.S. Foreign Policy Program. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses on U.S. foreign policy, international negotiations, U.S.-Israel relations, and Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. His research focuses on foreign policy decision-making, the role of political elites in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and civil-military relations in Israel. His written works on the impact of Israel’s nuclear policy on U.S.-Israel relations; Israel’s strategic partnership with France in the 1950s; learning in foreign policy; and the role of leaders’ personalities in foreign policy change have been published in peer-reviewed, scholarly journals. He has a background in policy, having worked at the U.S. Department of State on Capitol Hill, and for leading non-profit organizations that promote American involvement in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

The Madrid Peace Conference Legacy: Thirty Years Later