Appointment of Dennis B. Ross as Assistant to the President for Policy Planning

The President today announced the appointment of Dennis B. Ross as Assistant to the President for Policy Planning.

Since 1989, Mr. Ross has been Director of the Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State. In that position he played a major role in formulating and implementing U.S. policy toward the former Soviet Union and the Middle East peace process. Prior to becoming Director, Mr. Ross served as the senior foreign policy adviser to the George Bush campaign and the head of national security affairs during the Presidential transition. He was the Director of Near East and South Asian Affairs on the National Security Council staff from May 1986 to July 1988. From 1984 to 1986, he was outside the Government in the academic world, serving as the executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford program on Soviet international behavior. In the early 1980's, he held positions in both the State and Defense Departments, serving first as a member of the policy planning staff with responsibility for Middle Eastern issues. Later, from 1982 to 1984, he was the Deputy Director of the Office of Net Assessment in the Pentagon, working principally on Soviet, Middle Eastern, and broad military balance issues.

Mr. Ross did his undergraduate and graduate studies at UCLA, wrote a doctoral dissertation on Soviet decisionmaking, and has published extensively on Soviet and Middle Eastern policy questions. He was born on November 26, 1948, in San Francisco, CA. Mr. Ross is married and has three children.ÿ20