Why has the United States consistently failed to achieve its strategic goals in the Middle East? According to Dennis Ross and David Makovsky, two of America’s leading experts on the region, it is because we have been laboring under false assumptions, or mythologies, about the nature and motivation of Middle East countries and their leaders. In Myths, Illusions, and Peace, the authors debunk these damaging fallacies, held by both the right and the left, and present a concise and far-reaching set of principles that will help America set an effective course of action in the region.

Among the myths that the authors show to be false and even dangerous is the idea that Israeli-Palestinian peace is the key to solving all the Middle East’s problems; that regime change is a prerequisite for peace and democracy; and that Iran’s leadership is immune from diplomatic and economic pressure.

These and other historic misunderstandings have generated years’ worth of failed policies and crippled America’s ability to make productive decisions in this volatile part of the world, a region that will hold the key to our security in the twenty-first century. Ross and Makovsky offer a critical rethinking of American perceptions at a time of great import and change.

David Makovsky is a senior fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at The Washington Institute. He is also an adjunct lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report.

Mr. Makovsky recently completed a monograph entitled: "A Defensible Fence: Fighting Terror and Enabling a Two State Solution." An abstract of the monograph appeared as a full-length essay in March/April, 2004 edition of Foreign Affairs. His articles on the Arab-Israeli conflict and peace process have recently appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and National Interest. The author of the book Making Peace with the PLO: The Rabin Government's Road to the Oslo Accord (Westview Press/HarperCollins in cooperation with The Washington Institute, 1996), he was a contributor to Middle East Contemporary Survey of 1995, published by Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center for Middle East Studies, and is also a contributor to Triumph without Victory (Random House/Times Books, 1992), a retrospective on the Gulf War. Mr. Makovsky appears frequently on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, ABC News, Cable News Network (CNN), British Broadcasting Company (BBC), and National Public Radio (NPR).

Before arriving at The Washington Institute, Mr. Makovsky was an award-winning journalist, having covered the Middle East peace process since 1989. He is the former executive editor of the Jerusalem Post, where he also served as diplomatic correspondent for more than seven years (1989-97). In addition, he was the diplomatic correspondent for Israel's leading daily Ha'aretz (1997-99) and had primary responsibility at both newspapers for covering the peace process. Before becoming a contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report, he served as the magazine's special Jerusalem correspondent for eleven years. Mr. Makovsky was a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute in January and February 1994.

In July 1994, with the personal intervention of then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Mr. Makovsky became the first journalist writing for an Israeli publication to visit Damascus. In total, he has made five trips to Syria, the latest in December 1999 as he accompanied then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In March 1995, upon further assistance from U.S. officials, Mr. Makovsky was given unprecedented permission to file reports from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; he also visited Riyadh in December 1999. Mr. Makovsky was a co-recipient of the National Press Club's 1994 Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence for a U.S. News and World Report cover story on PLO finances.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri (b. June 21, 1960), Mr. Makovsky received a bachelor's degree from Columbia University and a master's degree in Middle East Studies from Harvard University.