Senior Advisors

James L. Jones

General James Jones, USMC (Ret) served as National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama from January 20, 2009 until October 2010.

From July 1999 to January 2003, General Jones was the 32nd Commandant of the Marine Corps. After relinquishing command as Commandant, he assumed the positions of Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR) and Commander of the United States European Command (USEUCOM), positions he held until December 2006. General Jones retired from active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps on February 1st, 2007, after more than 40 years of uniformed service to the nation.

On November 28, 2007, General Jones was appointed as the State Department’s Special Envoy for Middle East Regional Security. In this capacity, he worked with Israeli and Palestinian officials in furthering the Peace Process – focused on the full range of security issues in order to strengthen security for both sides.

General Jones spent his formative years in France, returning to the United States to attend Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, from which he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1966. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps in January 1967 and, later that year was ordered to the Republic of Vietnam where he served as a Platoon and Company Commander. Over the next four decades, General Jones served in a variety of command and staff positions while stationed in the United States, Europe, and Okinawa, Japan. In addition to combat experience in Vietnam, his deployment experiences included tours as Commander, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, in Operation Provide Comfort in Northern Iraq and Turkey and, after advancing to Brigadier General, as Chief of Staff, Joint Task Force Provide Promise, for operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.

In addition to having been awarded national and international military awards, General Jones received a Bachelor of Science degree (1966) and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters (2002) from Georgetown University. In June 1985, he graduated from the National War College in Washington, D.C.



General Brent Scowcroft, Eric Melby and Henry Siegman

General Brent Scowcroft, Eric Melby and Henry Siegman

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Can Kerry Rescue a Two-State Peace Accord?

If the purpose of President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel was to dispel the view held by most Israelis, and by rightwing American Jewish supporters of AIPAC and the Likud’s annexationist policies, that he is hostile to Israel and to the Zionist enterprise, it must be judged a brilliant success. Not everyone was converted, but his words and personal charm seemed to have worked wonders on most Israelis.
While his visit was not expected to revive prospects for a two-state solution, he spoke far more directly and energetically about the need for an end to Israel’s occupation and about his own continuing efforts to help the parties achieve an agreement than his recent disengagement from the peace process prepared anyone for. But nothing he said in Jerusalem or Ramallah–and, more importantly, that he failed to say–justifies an expectation that his reengagement will be of a kind that has any chance of preventing Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government from finally nailing down the coffin in which they are burying a viable two-state outcome.

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