On Wednesday, January 14, the Jan Koum Israel Studies Program at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law welcomed Ambassador Dennis Ross — a veteran U.S. negotiator in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations and advisor on Middle East policy — to discuss his latest book, Statecraft 2.0: What America Needs to Lead in a Multipolar World. Ambassador Ross joined former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in the Department of Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, FSI, and the Woods Institute for the Environment, in a conversation moderated by Amichai Magen, director of the Jan Koum Israel Studies Program.

Magen explained that Ambassador Ross’s book focuses on Russia and China, and McFaul’s latest book, Autocrats Vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, focuses on several locations, with an emphasis on the Middle East. Both former ambassadors, Magen explained, sought to make sense of an era of geopolitical fluidity, approaching from a liberal internationalist perspective. The former ambassadors discussed the place of America in the world order, the decline of a rule-based international order and the development of a disorderly world, and the meaning of liberalism. The seminar concluded with a focus on Iran’s role in the Middle East and the roles of force and diplomacy in the geopolitical landscape.