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News & Events
Summer 2009
Alumna negotiating new arms reduction agreement with Russia
On April 6, 2009, Rose Gottemoeller, who earned her master's degree in science, technology, and public policy from The George Washington University in 1981, was sworn in as assistant secretary of state for verification, compliance, and implementation.
In her new position, Ms. Gottemoeller, who was previously director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Moscow Center and a senior associate in the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Program in Washington, D.C., is the U.S. negotiator in strategic arms reduction talks with Russia, which President Barack Obama has called for by December 2009, when the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires.
"Rose Gottemoeller's extraordinary commitment and expertise make her a valuable addition to the State Department and my national security team as we renew American diplomacy to create a more secure world," President Obama said in his May 17 announcement of his intent to nominate Ms. Gottemoeller.
Assistant Secretary Gottemoeller brings several decades of expertise as a scholar and practitioner of defense and nuclear policy in relation to Russia and other former Soviet states to her new position, including serving as deputy undersecretary for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the U.S. Department of Energy.
She credits her studies at the Elliott School with helping prepare her for policymaking. "The thing I liked best about my Elliott School experience was the open-mindedness to an interdisciplinary approach," Assistant Secretary Gottemoeller said. "I was in the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program but took a lot of courses on the Soviet Union — economics, politics, and security studies. I was already interested in mixing science policy and Russia in my career, and I could avoid being pigeonholed at GW."
Apparently, her credentials are raising some concerns in Russia, as documented by the blog Russian strategic nuclear forces in its post "Who is afraid of Rose Gottemoeller?" The post quotes Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper VPK, who warned that the assistant secretary "personally and informally knows almost all key Russian experts on strategic forces" and "has an 'inside' knowledge of Moscow's logic and its approach to the negotiating process."
"Gottemoeller has been dealing with nuclear issues for quite some time and is known as a brilliant professional. It would be difficult, almost impossible to outplay her," Mr. Korotchenko continued. "For Russia a draw would be almost like a victory. Will we be able to find a figure of similar caliber?"