ITHACA, N.Y. -- Dennis B. Ross, the former U.S. ambassador and Washington's chief peace negotiator in the Middle East, will discuss "Finding the Missing Peace? The Middle East in 2005," this year's Bartels World Affairs Fellowship lecture at Cornell University, Wednesday, April 27, at 8 p.m. in Statler Auditorium.

Ross played the leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process for more than 12 years, while serving in the Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations. As a peace process architect, he assisted the Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement, and he successfully brokered the Hebron Accord.

Ross facilitated the Israeli-Jordan peace treaty and worked intensively to bring Israel and Syria together. His tireless approach centered on making progress wherever it was possible, while building new baselines for understanding. Ross was awarded the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service by President Clinton.

Currently Ross is counselor and a Ziegler distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He also is the first chairman of a new Jerusalem-based think tank, the Institute for Jewish People Policy Planning, funded and founded by the Jewish Agency. His book, "The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace," was published last August. He is a foreign affairs analyst for the Fox News Channel in addition to being a frequent commentator in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times.

The Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels World Affairs Fellowship was established at Cornell in 1984. The program's mission is to expand world views among Cornell students by bringing to campus distinguished international public figures. Each Bartels fellow spends two or three days at Cornell engaged in close interaction with students and faculty and participating in seminars and informal discussions.