New CNAS Energy Program Led by Elizabeth Rosenberg, Former Treasury Official, Releases Report on Iranian Nuclear Talks and Sanctions

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) welcomed Elizabeth Rosenberg on October 1 as a Senior Fellow and the Director of its new program on Energy, Environment and Security. Ms. Rosenberg has joined with CNAS Middle East Program Director Dr. Colin Kahl to publish a policy brief, released today, examining how best to calibrate sanctions relief as a means to encourage Iran to move forward with “meaningful constraints on its nuclear program.”

In The Great Unwinding: Iranian Nuclear Negotiations and Principles for Sanctions Relief, the authors note that the Iranian regime may be ready to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. But, they add, the real test will come with the resumption of nuclear talks in Geneva on October 15-16 when the parties will have to confront taking concrete steps.Ms. Rosenberg and Dr. Kahl outline the challenges to the Obama Administration in striking “the appropriate balance between relieving sanctions and concessions on the nuclear issue.” They offer suggestions on how to move forward through U.S. executive action, congressional legislation and European Union moves but caution that, as a hedge, relief from sanctions “should also include provisions for automatic reinstatement if Iran does not comply with the terms of any nuclear agreement.”

Download a copy of The Great Unwinding: Iranian Nuclear Negotiations and Principles for Sanctions Relief here.

According to Ms. Rosenberg, the new Energy, Environment and Security Program at CNAS will analyze the implications of a changing global energy landscape, and the opportunities and challenges it presents. "Leveraging CNAS’ strengths in regional expertise, defense policy and grand strategy, the program will help to inform energy market, industry and policy conversation. Consideration of geopolitical events and the impacts of energy use will guide the program’s pragmatic policy recommendations to foreign affairs and national security leaders," says Ms. Rosenberg.

Ms. Rosenberg joins CNAS with a long list of accomplishments in the energy security field. She served as a Senior Advisor at the Treasury Department first to the Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes and then to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence from 2009 to 2013. In these capacities she helped to develop and implement financial and energy sanctions including tightening global sanctions on Iran and launching comprehensive sanctions against Libya and Syria. She also helped to formulate anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing policy and oversee financial regulatory enforcement activities. Previously, Ms. Rosenberg was an energy policy correspondent at Argus Media, was an editor of the Arab Studies Journal and worked on Middle Eastern politics at the Council on Foreign Relations. She has spoken and published extensively onOPEC, strategic reserves, energy sanctions and national security policy, oil and natural gas investment and production, and renewable fuels. Ms. Rosenberg received a master’s degree in Near Eastern Studies from New York University in 2004 and a bachelor’s degree in Politics and Religion from Oberlin College in 2000.