Last Updated May 7, 2009
In the past several months, President Barack Obama and his leading cabinet members and advisers, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, UN Ambassador Susan Rice, and national security adviser Jim Jones, have set an ambitious arms control agenda focusing on the need to extend START, prevent proliferation in Iran and North Korea, and secure loose nuclear weapons and fissile material from theft or unauthorized use. Carrying out this ambitious agenda will require the administration to fill dozens of lower-level positions. The following is a list of some of the other, sometimes less-known administration members who will be advising top officials and the president on issues relating to arms control and nonproliferation. The list selectively includes indications of policy stances from confirmation hearings or recent writings, where appropriate, and also notes key positions that remain to be filled.
| Executive Office of the President: | |
| Gary Samore - White House Coordinator for Arms Control and WMD Terrorism (WMD "Czar") | Former Vice President of the Council on Foreign Relations and Clinton administration Senior Director for Nonproliferation and Export Controls at the National Security Council. |
| Steve Kosiak - Office of Management and Budget, Associate Director for Defense and International Affairs | Former Director of Budget Studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; specialist in defense and security budget analysis; co-author of "Smarter Bombs, Fewer Nukes" (1998), which discusses U.S. development of non-nuclear strategic weapons that can outperform nuclear weapons. |
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Mark Lippert - National Security Council Chief of Staff |
Obama staffer and Senior National Security Adviser during the campaign; served tour of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Navy; previously worked on Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee. |
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John Holdren - Assistant to the President for Science and Technology |
Former Director of Science, Technology, and Public Policy program at Harvard University and President of American Association for the Advancement of Science; consistent nonproliferation advocate who worked extensively on issues relating to global environmental change; served as head of presidential science panels from 1995 to 1999 focusing on securing fissionable material and energy research. |
| Steve Fetter - Assistant Director at large - Energy, Environment, Science, Security | Dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland; serves on the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on International Security and Arms Control and the National Council of the Federation of American Scientists; served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy from 1993-1994; areas of expertise include climate change and nonproliferation |
| Office of the Vice President: | |
| Antony Blinken - National Security Adviser to the Vice President |
Former Biden Staff Director on Senate Foreign Relations Committee; served on National Security Council during Clinton presidency; helped craft Biden's positions on nuclear disarmament and Iran. |
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Jon Wolfsthal - Special Adviser to the Vice President for WMD and Nonproliferation Policy |
Former Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; co-authored Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats (2005); expert on unconventional weapons proliferation, fissile material, and Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs. |
| Department of State: | |
| Rose Gottemoeller - Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance |
Most recently she was the Director of the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow Center. During the Clinton Administration she served as Deputy Undersecretary for Defense Nuclear Non-proliferation in the U.S. Department of Energy and was the Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasian Affairs in the National Security Council. |
| James B. Steinberg - Deputy Secretary of State | Deputy National Security Adviser during Clinton administration; Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to Obama during campaign; seeks to reinvigorate the arms control agenda. |
| Susan Rice - Ambassador to the United Nations | Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs during Clinton administration; Senior Director for African affairs at the National Security Council (1993-1995). |
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Ellen Tauscher - Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security (nominated) |
Congresswoman Taucher is currently serving her seventh term in the House of Representatives representing California's 10th district. She is the chair of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee and the New Democrat Coalition. Her district houses two of the national nuclear laboratories, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia. Throughout her career she has worked to strengthen nonproliferation programs and ensure the reliability of the nation's missile defense programs by requiring greater oversight of the Missile Defense Agency. |
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Andrew J. Shapiro - Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs (nominated) |
From 2001 to 2009 Shapiro served as Senator Clinton's Senior Defense and Foreign Policy Advisor and worked closely with Senator Clinton on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Formerly, Shapiro served as counsel to the Justice Department's International Competition Policy Advisory Committee. |
| Stephen Bosworth - Special Representative for North Korea Policy | Former U.S. ambassador to South Korea; recently dean of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; favors attempting to bring North Korea into the regional and global economy, an effort he thinks will require further U.S. humanitarian and economic aid. |
| Dennis B. Ross - Special Advisor for the Gulf and Southwest Asia | Former Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; played a central role in the Middle East peace process during the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations; Co-founder of the United Against Nuclear Iran program. |
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Ray Takeyh - Assistant to U.S. Special Advisor for the Gulf and Southwest Asia Dennis Ross |
Former Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Iran expert and author of "Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic" and "Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs" |
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Susan Burk - U.S. Special Representative to the President for the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference |
Former Deputy Coordinator for Homeland Security in Office of Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism at State Department; Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation Controls; Led U.S. preparations for the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference |
| Bonnie Jenkins - Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs | Program Officer for U.S. Foreign and Security policy at the Ford Foundation; former Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University; served on the 9/11 Commission and wrote part of the 9/11 Commission Report; expert on arms control, counter-terrorism policy, and non-proliferation |
| To be filled - | Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation |
| Department of Defense: | |
| William J. Lynn III - Deputy Secretary of Defense | Comptroller and Undersecretary of Defense during Clinton administration; senior vice president at Raytheon; favors closer cooperation with South Korea to guard against North Korea's nuclear threat. |
| Michele Flournoy - Deputy Undersecretary for Policy | Former President and Co-founder of the Center for a New American Security; served two positions in the Defense Department during Clinton administration. |
| Ashton Carter - Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics | Former professor of science and international affairs at the Kennedy School of Government; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy from 1993-1996 and presided over Cooperative Threat Reduction program; will now oversee the reverse role, arms development and acquisition. |
| Andrew C. Weber - Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs (nominated) |
Currently serves as a Defense Department adviser for threat reduction policy and is responsible for Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction initiatives to reduce WMD proliferation. |
| Michael G. Vickers - Assistant Secretary for Special Operations, Low-Intensity Conflict, and Interdependent Capabilities | Assumed his current role in July 2007 during the Bush administration; Former Senior Vice President of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; Served as an Army Special Forces NCO from 1973 to 1986 |
| Elizabeth King - Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, Department of Defense |
Former Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor on Defense, Foreign Affairs and Veterans and Principal staffer for the Senate Armed Services Committee for Senator Jack Reed; Served as Counsel for the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission in 1995. |
| Edward L. Warner III - Secretary of Defense Representative for Post-Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty Negotiations |
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Threat Reduction from 1997 to 2000, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Requirements between 1993 and 1997. |
| To be filled - | Director, Defense Threat Reduction Agency |
| Department of Energy: | Although Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has been confirmed, several key positions at the Department of Energy have yet to be filled. They include the key positions at the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which manages the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and Energy Department nonproliferation programs. These positions include: Undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator (NNSA), Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs (NNSA), and Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (NNSA). |
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Daniel Poneman - Deputy Secretary of Energy |
Principal of the Scowcroft Group, a business advisory firm which provides advice on a number of issues ranging from energy to security policy; served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Nonproliferation and Export Controls at the National Security Council from 1993-1996; before that he served as Director of Defense Policy and Arms Control at the NSC; coauthor of Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis |