PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCES
With the Middle East as a focal point of U.S. foreign policymaking, a complex array of regional issues now compete for the urgent attention of America's leaders. In preparation for the first presidential succession of the twenty-first century, The Washington Institute has assembled three independent Presidential Task Forces. Each is composed of its own bipartisan, blue-ribbon group of experts and practitioners, and each is charged with addressing a discrete issue high on the U.S. Middle East policy agenda.
About This Report
The Presidential Task Force on the Future of U.S.-Israel Relations is composed of a distinguished, bipartisan group of current and former diplomats, legislators, strategists, scholars, and experts. Its "policy statement" was endorsed by more than a dozen respected policy practitioners, including former Bush administration deputy national security advisor Robert Blackwill; former National Security Council official Richard Clarke; former Clinton administration assistant secretary of state for public affairs Thomas Donilon; former Bush administration assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs John Hillen; former ambassador and arms-control negotiator Max Kampelman; former senator Robert Kerrey; former Clinton administration national security advisor Anthony Lake; former ambassador to Israel Samuel Lewis; former ambassador to Turkey and senior director of the National Security Council Mark Parris; former Clinton administration assistant secretary of state for African affairs Susan Rice; former Bush administration secretary of the Air Force James Roche; former Clinton administration State Department counselor Wendy Sherman; former Clinton administration undersecretary of defense for policy Walter Slocombe; former congressman Vin Weber; and former Clinton administration director of central intelligence R. James Woolsey.
Ambassador Dennis Ross -- former Middle East peace envoy and Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute -- and Institute executive director Robert Satloff convened this task force.