Negotiating the New START Treaty

Rose Gottemoeller is the first female Deputy Secretary General of NATO and the first woman to lead a major nuclear arms negotiation. As the US chief negotiator of the New START treaty, her new book Negotiating the New START Treaty is hailed by Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, as one “future negotiators would benefit

from reading” and by William J. Perry, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, as “the definitive book on this treaty or indeed, any of the nuclear treaties with the Soviet Union or Russia.”

In this invaluable insider’s account of the negotiations between the US and Russian delegations in Geneva in 2009 and 2010, the crucial discussions between President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev as well as the tough negotiations Gottemoeller and her team went through to gain Senate support are brought to light. Importantly, at a time when the US Congress stands deeply divided, Gottemoeller’s book tells the story of how Republicans and Democrats came together to ratify a treaty to safeguard the future of all Americans.

Uniquely qualified to write this book, Rose Gottemoeller brings to the task not only many years of high-level experience in creating and enacting US policy on arms control and compliance but also a profound understanding of the broader politico-military context from her time as NATO Deputy Secretary General. Thanks to her years of working with Russians, including as Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, she provides rare insights into the actions of the Russian delegation—and the dynamics between Medvedev and then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Her encyclopedic recall of the events and astute ability to analyze issues objectively—while sharing her thoughts and feelings as the negotiations took unexpected twists and turns—make this book both an invaluable document of record and a fascinating story.

By conveying the sense of excitement and satisfaction in delivering an innovative arms control instrument for the American people and by laying out the lessons Gottemoeller and her colleagues learned, this book will serve as an inspiration and a road map for the next generation of negotiators as they learn and practice their trade as well as a blueprint to inform the shaping and ratification of future treaties.