Aaron David Miller helped formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and Arab-Israel peace process.
OTISFIELD | Seeds of Peace announced that Aaron David Miller, currently the senior adviser for Arab-Israeli negotiations at the U.S. State Department, will become president of the international nonprofit organization Wednesday, Jan. 15.
Miller replaces Seeds of Peace founder John Wallach, who died last summer. Wallach established the summer camp on Pleasant Lake to foster peace among teens from war-torn countries.
Miller joined the Department of State in 1978, where he helped formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli peace process. He has served as an adviser to six secretaries of state, as the deputy special Middle East coordinator for Arab-Israeli negotiations, as a senior member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and in the Office of the Historian. He has received the department’s Distinguished, Superior, and Meritorious Honor Awards.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a statement about Miller’s departure: “ Seeds of Peace reflects the type of effort so desperately needed in the Middle East to bring Arabs and Israelis in contact with one another at a personal level. Aaron Miller is uniquely qualified to lead this effort. Although my colleagues and I at the Department of State will miss him greatly, the work he will be involved in is vital to Arab-Israeli peacemaking. I wish him much luck and success in this new career opportunity.”
Miller received his doctorate in American Diplomatic and Middle East History from the University of Michigan in 1977. During 1982 and 1983, he was a Council on Foreign Relations fellow and a resident scholar at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 1984 he served a temporary tour at the American Embassy in Amman, Jordan. Between 1998 and 2000, Miller served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He has written three books on the Middle East and lectured widely at universities and Middle East symposia across the country. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Orbis and numerous other publications.
Wallach’s wife, Janet Wallach, will remain at Seeds of Peace and head up Seeds’ New York office as senior vice president.
Miller will work out of the new Washington, D.C., Seeds of Peace office located in Canal Square at 1054 31st St.
Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has graduated more than 2,000 teenagers representing 22 nations from its internationally recognized conflict-resolution and coexistence program. Through these programs, at the International Camp in Otisfield and at its Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, participants develop empathy, respect, communication/negotiation skills, confidence, and hope—the building blocks for peaceful coexistence. A jointly published newspaper, listserve, educational conferences and seminars ensure year-round follow-up programming.