Steven L. Spiegel

Steven L. Spiegel "is Professor of Political Science at UCLA and Director of Mideast Regional Security Programs for UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations. He specializes in the analysis of world politics, American foreign policy, and American foreign policy in the Middle East. Through the innovative informal negotiation technique he has developed, Dr. Spiegel produces cutting edge ideas for Middle East regional security and promotes a community of accommodation and understanding among members of the region.In June 1995, Dr. Spiegel received the Karpf Peace Prize, which is awarded to the UCLA professor considered to have done  the most for the cause of world peace during the previous two years.

"As a National Scholar of Israel Policy Forum, Dr. Spiegel provides policy direction and expertise, and also writes frequent analyses of the latest developments in Arab-Israeli relations. Spiegel shares his assessments with a wide audience through two IPF features: “IPF Focus” and a bi-weekly conference call briefing. Spiegel developed and is responsible for "IPF Focus," weekly memos that present innovative views and avenues for promoting the Arab-Israeli peace process. Twice a month, he also runs an IPF conference call briefing where he asks incisive questions of other Middle East scholars, often from the region, on ongoing Middle East developments and moderates a public discussion.

"In addition to his work with IPF, Dr. Spiegel regularly provides recommendations to leading American politicians, journalists, and opinion makers on how US interests can be enhanced in the Middle East. For example, in the 1992 Presidential campaign, Spiegel served as the senior foreign policy advisor to former Senator Paul Tsongas and later as a Middle East advisor to then Governor Bill Clinton.

"Steven Spiegel's recent university activities include the position of international chair of the Middle East cooperative security program for the statewide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) of the University of California. He is also the Associate Director of UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations (BCIR).

"In honor of his sustained efforts, Steven Spiegel has received a number of awards. In 1993, he was the recipient of the prestigious Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs. He also served as the Chair of the Liberal Arts Committee of the Commission of Arms Control and Disarmament of the International Association of University residents/United Nations Commission on Arms Control Education from 1992-1996.

"His latest books are World Politics In a New Era (third edition with Jennifer Morrison Taw, Fred L. Wehling, and Kristen P. Williams), which was published by Thomson/Wadsworth Publishers in August 2003 and The Dynamics of Middle East Proliferation, Edwin Mellen Press, 2001, edited with Jennifer Kibbe and Elizabeth Mathews. He is now working on a volume about the US Record in the Middle East.

"His book The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict: Making America's Middle East Policy, from Truman to Reagan (University of Chicago Press, 1985) won the 1986 National Jewish Book Award. This volume has been acclaimed as "a masterly and incisive book that should be valuable for experts and laymen alike" in the words of Amos Perlmutter in the Wall Street Journal. Nathan Glazer in the New Republic calls his research "awesome," arguing the book "overwhelms any other in its detail, its precision, and (to this reader, at any rate) its objectivity." Nadav Safran in the New York Times says this book addresses America's policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict "with admirable thoroughness, verve, and facility of expression." Harvey Sicherman in The Washington Quarterly says the book is "a closely reasoned, well-documented and utterly persuasive case for that long-forgotten species, the policy maker as a living, breathing and influential actor."

"His earlier books include Dominance and Diversity: The International Hierarchy, The International Politics of Regions (with Louis Cantori), The Middle East and the Western Alliance (editor), and Conflict in World Politics (edited with Kenneth N. Waltz). He is co-editor of The Soviet-American Competition in the Middle East, which was published by Lexington Books in the fall of 1987, and At Issue: Politics in the World Arena, which was published in its seventh edition in the fall of 1993. He is editor of Conflict Management in the Middle East, published in 1992 by Westview Press; The Arab-Israeli Search for Peace, Lynne Reinner Publishers, 1992; and two volumes of Practical Peacekeeping in the Middle East, from Garland Publishers in 1995.

"Professor Spiegel is also widely published in such well-known magazines and journals as The New Republic, The National Interest, Commentary, Orbis, Middle East Insight, Middle East Quarterly, American Conservative, and International Studies Quarterly. In addition, he writes frequently for major newspapers: articles have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Diego Union, and the Miami Herald."

Has worked with the USIP's Arab-Israeli Peacemaking.