Lecture to provide insider’s look at New START treaty

Author: Joan Fallon

Rose Gottemoeller

Rose Gottemoeller, U.S. assistant secretary of state and chief negotiator of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the U.S. and Russia, will speak at the University of Notre Dame on Sept. 21 (Tuesday) at 4:15 p.m. in the auditorium of the Hesburgh Center for International Studies. The event is free and open to the public.

Gottemoeller will provide an insider’s view of negotiations toward a treaty to reduce nuclear arsenals, which was signed by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last spring. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to vote on ratification of the treaty on Sept. 16.

Respondents to the lecture are Col. Richard Klass of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and Ira Helfand of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Discussion will include the terms of the new treaty, its impact on relations between the United States and Russia, and its implications for U.S. and international security.

Gottemoeller also will address the Obama administration’s nuclear security agenda and its efforts to secure nuclear materials and reduce nuclear stockpiles globally.

The event is sponsored by the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Media Advisory: Members of the media are welcome to attend the event and to ask questions during the question and answer period. Col. Klass, Ira Helfan, and David Cortright, a Notre Dame expert on nuclear weapons policy, are available for interviews.