Aaron David Miller likens the American experience in the Middle East to the famous Jonathan Swift character who endures a nasty reception from the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput.

"America is stuck in a dangerous part of the world, which it can't fix and can't run away from," said Miller, a former State Department advisor who will speak at a University of Utah forum Tuesday. "I see America as a modern-day Gulliver tied down by tiny powers whose interests might not be ours. We are a great power stuck in a world dominated by smaller tribes."

Miller has advised six secretaries of state, helping to formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East. Now a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, he is the author of many books, most recently The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace .

He will deliver the keynote address, titled "Gulliver's Troubles: Obama and America in the Middle East," of a three-day conference organized by the U.'s Tanner Humanities Center.

"The region is less a land of diplomatic opportunity for the United States and more a trap from which it can't easily escape," he said. "The conflicts in this region are long movies that will likely be playing after President [Barack] Obama leaves office. There are no end games here."

Tanner director and U. history professor Bob Goldberg describes Miller as "a speaker with unique insight into the complex nature of politics in the Middle East. His work and analysis provides guidance in understanding the roots of conflict in the region and possible avenues to peace and resolution."

The Middle East conference begins Monday with film screenings at Fort Douglas and continues Wednesday with a series of forums.