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Students in James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies Director William Potter’s Monterey classroom aren’t just studying current events; they’re experiencing them with an unmatched level of realism. Even as Obama Administration officials work to negotiate a renewal of the START treaty with their Russian counterparts, students at the Monterey Institute are working through a semester-long simulation of the same negotiations, guided by Dr. Potter and Dr. Nikolai Sokov, a former member of the Russian delegation to the START I and START II talks with an insider’s intimate knowledge of the process.

The line between classroom exercise and reality was blurred further yesterday when students in the simulation class held a teleconference with Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Verification, Compliance, and Implementation Rose Gottemoeller, the U.S. official in charge of overseeing the START Replacement Treaty negotiations. With the semester-long simulation course set to conclude within days of the Obama Administration’s announced December 5 goal for completing the START renewal talks, both participants and observers are curious to observe the parallels between real life and the classroom.

For More Information

Jason Warburg
jwarburg@middlebury.edu
831.647.3156

Eva Gudbergsdottir
eva@middlebury.edu
831.647.6606