Summary: Aaron David Miller joined the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as a Public Policy Fellow in January 2006. For the prior two decades, he served at the Department of State as an adviser to six secretaries of state, where he helped formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israel peace process, most recently as the Senior Adviser for Arab-Israeli Negotiations. In a conversation with Sherra Babcock, director of Education, Miller covers his view of real peace and the resolution between Palestine and Israel, his opinion of the conversation at Chautauqua, his probing style of questioning, the critical reason the U.S. needs to stay in Afghanistan and how he views ego and the position of Secretary of State. Central to the conversation is his detailed description of mediation. “A mediator is never loved...you’re going to have to push each of them further than they were prepared to go...you can’t trick them into agreeing...it would never be sustainable...the stakes are about life and death.”
