Rt. Hon. Michael Ancram, MP

Lecture by Michael Ancram:
The Middle East Peace Process; the case for Jaw-jaw not War-war
April 17, 2007

The Eisenhower Institute hosted a lecture on April 17, 2007 featuring the Right Honorable Michael Ancram QC MP in the British House of Commons and the former deputy leader of the Conservative Party. Ancram discussed the Middle East peace process in his speech entitled "The Middle East Peace Process; The case for Jaw-jaw not War-war" (click here for a transcript). Having recently returned from a trip to the Middle East region (Beirut, Damascus, and Jerusalem), where he held a series of meetings with representatives from all sides concerned in the recent tensions, Ancram was particularly qualified to provide insight into the slowly evolving and combustible peace process there.

Ancram, who served as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs and Shadow Secretary of State for Defense During the Major administration, was integral in opening talks with Sinn Fein and the IRA in Northern Ireland. In a series of recent visits to the Middle East, Ancram aptly took his background in negotiations and applied it to the situation there. In his presentation,  Ancram made a strong argument in favor of communication with your enemies. He thought it was "crassly short-sighted to exclude on the basis that they have not renounced violence, Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and even the Taliban in Afghanistan.

 Ancram argued that negotiations with Iran and Syria would be a worthwhile and beneficial experience as "regional stability will not be achieved in the long term without [them]." In addition, Ancram suggested that over the last four months, he has met directly with members of both Hamas, and there are definite signs that the organization is willing to enter talks on a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Ancram acted as Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office responsible for the peace process at that time. Upon recently stepping down from the Front Bench, he was appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair to the House of Commons Intelligence Select Committee. Ancram maintains a keen interest in international affairs and defense matters, and in 2006, he founded an independent foreign affairs think tank, Global Strategy Forum. His main areas of interest are the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, and he continues to study peace processes and the practice of talking to terrorists, or "dancing with wolves."