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Aaron David Miller      

Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment, Middle East Expert, Former State Dept. Advisor

Aaron David Miller is currently a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, focusing on American diplomacy and US foreign policy. He is also a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. Miller has authored five books, including "The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President" and "The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace." He holds a PhD in Middle East and US diplomatic history from the University of Michigan, obtained in 1977.

From 1978 to 2003, Miller served various roles at the State Department, including as an historian, analyst, negotiator, and advisor to Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State, where he contributed to shaping US policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli peace process. His last position there was as the senior advisor for Arab-Israeli negotiations. He also held positions such as deputy special Middle East coordinator for Arab-Israeli negotiations, senior member of the State Department’s policy planning staff, in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and in the office of the historian. Over his career at the State Department, he received several accolades, including the department’s Distinguished, Superior, and Meritorious Honor Awards.

Miller is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held the position of resident scholar at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies. He served as president of Seeds of Peace from 2003 to 2006, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of young leaders from regions of conflict. From 2006 to 2019, he was affiliated with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he served as a public policy scholar, Vice-President for New Initiatives, and Director of the Middle East Program.

Currently, Miller is a global affairs analyst for CNN and has been recognized as a leading authority on the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and US foreign policy. His written work has been featured in significant publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Foreign Policy, and USA Today. He is a frequent commentator on platforms such as NPR, BBC, and Sirius XM radio.

Speech Topics

America and the World

America faces a challenging world where powers large and small seek to contain and undermine its influence. Domestic political dysfunction further US capacity to project its power abroad. How do we protect our vital interests -- (what me must have) as opposed to our discretionary interests (what it would be nice to have)? Here are the ten takeaways for a smart and effective US foreign policy.

Gulliver's Troubles: America and the Middle East

The Middle East is no longer as central to US foreign policy as it has been in recent decades. This region presents the US with a conundrum: we cannot transform it and we cannot extricate ourselves from it. If there's no transformation and no extrication, the answer lies in smart transaction. This presentation will provide the keys to finding that balance.

The End of Greatness: Why America Can't Have and (Doesn't Want) Another Great President

Throughout our history we have has three -- and only three undeniably great presidents -- one a century; Washington in the 18th; Lincoln in the 19th; and FDR in the 20th; Americans are obsessed with greatness in the presidency. And yet the recipe for producing that greatness -- crisis, character and capacity (the so-called 3Cs) have long since disappeared. Why has greatness gone the way of the dodo; and if we can't have great presidents, what kind of chief executive can we have. Take a romp through the presidential history to find out.

Twenty-five Years of Traveling the Negotiator's Highway

Having worked for six Secretaries of State on Arab-Israeli negotiations, I've had a twenty-five year front row seat to America's successes and failures. When do negotiations work and when don't they? Are there core elements that hold the key to a successful deal; and can those elements be applied in other domains and areas of the human enterprise. Tune in and find out.

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