Shlomo Ben Ami was educated at Tel Aviv University  and Oxford University where he received his D.Phil. He headed the Graduate School of History, and  is the author of studies in Spanish history and fascism. He also held visiting fellowships at St.Antony’s College in Oxford and The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in Washington. In 2016, he was the George MacGovern professor of international and public affairs at the University of Columbia, New York.

In 1987-91 he served as Israel’s ambassador in Spain. He later headed the Israeli delegation at the Multilateral Talks on Refugees in the Middle East. In1999, he became minister of public security, and in 2000 foreign minister. As such he led the peace talks with the Palestinians throughout the last two years of the Clinton administration.

His publications include Scars of War, Wounds of Peace. The Arab-Israeli Tragedy, Oxford University Press 2006.

He served as a member of the international board of The International Crisis Group; and is  a special adviser to the United States Middle East Project. He has also served as an adviser to Colombia’s government on the peace process with the FARC guerrilla.

Mr Ben Ami is a regular contributor to Project Syndicate on strategic and global affairs.