For more than twelve years, US Amb. Dennis Ross played a leading role in shaping US involvement in the Middle East peace process. Responsible in both the former Bush and Clinton administrations for exploring ways to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he has now put his diplomatic expertise into a recently published book, entitled: “Statecraft And How to Restore America’s Standing in the World,”
Ross’ book outlines how statecraft helped shape a new world order after 1989. He shows how the failure of statecraft in Iraq and the Middle East has undercut the United States internationally, and makes clear that only statecraft can check the rise of China and the danger of a nuclear Iran.
He writes on the art of successful negotiation, and even outlines the “12 Rules to Follow,” for successful negotiations, and shows how America’s next president could resolve today’s problems and define a realistic, ambitious foreign policy.
There’s no doubt of Ross’ experience. He served as an architect of the US-led peace process, where he was instrumental in assisting the Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and brokered the Hebron Accord in 1997. He facilitated the Israel-Jordan peace treaty and has worked to bring Israel and Syria together.
Meeting recently with journalists of the Washington Association of Arab Journalists, WAAJ, Ross spoke on the Bush administration’s effectiveness in the Iraq war, the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Iran — and the legacy they will leave behind.
Ross is urging the Bush administration not to leave office without a firm agreement — for anything from an outline of what they see their future state would look like to final status negotiations — from the Palestinians and Israelis; and strongly cautioned against leaving the incoming administration empty-handed.
“If the next administration inherits a void, then it will take six months, at least, until the new US administration gives (Israeli-Palestinian talks) their attention,” he said, adding that “if they inherit something, will become much easier to keep the focus and keep the momentum (of peace talks) going.” Still, he warned, “whoever is the next president, he’ll inherit a really daunting legacy (in the Middle East).”
The biggest aid for the new administration, he said, is that the more concrete the plan (in terms of Middle East peace negotiations) that is passed on, the more the next administration will have to embrace it.
Currently, Ross is Counselor of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think tank, and chairman of a Jerusalem-based think tank, the Institute for Jewish People Policy Planning, funded and founded by the Jewish agency.
Asked if being Jewish was ever an issue while working in the Middle East, Ross said it was an issue when he started, “but I never felt offended. Especially when I was a negotiator representing the president of the United States.”
Asked if there were times his being a Jew came up in negotiations, Ross said the issue never came up directly, “but it would be mentioned in articles. Many people make the assumption that they know who you are based on your religious faith... So the only way to present yourself is by being consistent.”
Regarding current Israeli-Palestinians negotiations, Ross said: “The Israeli-Palestinian publics today are completely disbelieving.” Such lack of credibility “affects the negotiations, and affects whether each side is willing to take integrated historic leaps.”
Criticizing the Bush administration for not having “a ‘morning after strategy’ in Iraq,” he said the administration’s biggest failing at the Annapolis US-brokered Mideast peace conference, in November 2007, was “that we didn’t have a day-after strategy. We were unable to show that after Annapolis, something changed, that something was different.”
“We needed to give the public a reason to take a second look, we didn’t do this at Annapolis. It was the mother of all photo ops.”
Asked if the recent Israeli and Palestinian negotiations in Turkey were “a slap in the face for the US?” Ross said: “Yes.”
“I’m not criticizing that others are doing things, but it is unfortunate that the US is not even remotely involved. I’m not arguing that others can’t play a role — ultimate success requires that others play a role — but the US should be there to play a role, too.”
Ross said that for the track of negotiations they are pursuing in Turkey, “they ultimately will need the US”
This, he said, is because the US “by definition, with its overall capabilities, has the means to employ carrots and sticks.”
Switching to the subject of the US negotiations with Iran, Ross said when it comes to America’s current approach to Iran — “It’s been weak sticks and weak carrots.”
“The reason you do need both in Iran,” he said, is “If they only see powerful sticks they may believe this current push is about regime change, and they’ll resist negotiations. But if you use only carrots, then there is nothing to back it up with.”
Regarding sanctions in Iran, Ross believes that more UN imposed sanctions would not be useful, but rather the UN should “strike where it would hurt the most — by ceasing investment in oil and gas from the international community. “That would be significant. Iran has old technologies and the machinery in their oil fields needs to be updated.”
“Negotiations are our tools, they’re not an end, they’re a means. This administration tends to look at negotiations as a form of surrender,” said Ross.
“I’ve told a number of members of this administration — ‘Trust me, when you’re in the midst of negotiations you can say no. You won’t lose anything.’ Negotiations are a tool of your statecraft, why deny yourself a tool that could benefit you?”
This, of course, is what led him to write his book, to bemoan, perhaps with this administration, the art of lost statesmanship.
“The essence of statecraft is easy — it should depend on very good objectives — good objectives and good means,” said the former negotiator for President Clinton. “Bad statecraft would mean a gap between the objective and means.”
“It is hard to look at the US for political (leadership) and see good objects and means, he said, adding: “We went into Iraq without... a follow through plan.”
“The Bush administration had faith-based assessments, and they assumed everything would fall into place when Saddam’s regime fell down. They weren’t prepared for Iraq to fall apart.”
“One cannot take the objectives as given, one must think them through,” said the diplomat.
Ross said he learned to be punctilious from former Secretary of State James Baker about the importance of being very clear in negotiations.
“He insisted on being very clear because he did not want questions afterwards.”
“This is the one principle (I always remember): Never leave a meeting with a false sense of finished negotiations.
But, Ross admitted, it’s a tough principle to always follow. “The one time I violated my own principle was at the end of the Wye River Conference. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Bill Clinton met a few times alone — and later it came out that they had difference accounts of what was said between them.
“Trust your instinct. In negotiations, must follow them. Negotiations are about overcoming conflicts, and you can’t overcome them by hiding them.” And, during these negotiations he said that if he had credibility with people “it was because I was straight with them.”
On his book, Ross said that he originally thought it was going to be about negotiations. “But in reviewing his previous book, ‘The Missing Piece’ the embedded message was there.”
Perhaps it was then written as a guide for those apparently unable to help themselves: “The more I watched the Bush administration and what it was doing, the more unsettled I became.”
As Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama recently traveled in the region, Arab News asked Ross about Sen. Obama’s recent statement that Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Israel. “The final status needs to be resolved by negotiations, but the US government has always said the capital of Israel should be an undivided Jerusalem.”
