Names: Wolfsthal to OVP

CSIS nonproliferation expert Jon Wolfsthal has confirmed to The Cable that he will soon move to the White House to work as a special advisor to the vice president, working on WMD and non-proliferation issues. “Given the vice president’s long interest and expertise in these issues, he wants to make sure that he can contribute the best advice to the president,” Wolfsthal said. “It’s natural he would want someone on the staff to support him on this. … Everyone from [national security advisor] Gen. Jones on down has said both the president and vice president will be supported by the NSC. Part of the reason I was brought on is because I have known all of the players for a long time and have good relations with them,” he said, mentioning the new U.S. government-wide White House WMD coordinator — or “czar” — Gary Samore and prospective undersecretary of state for arms control and international security Robert Einhorn.

Wolfsthal previously worked as a civil servant in the Department of Energy and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“Jon is first rate,” said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund. “He was my deputy director of the Non-Proliferation Program at the Carnegie Endowment for six years and co-author of our book, Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats, the nuclear encyclopedia still used in classrooms across the country. (Really. I have students come up to me all the time saying how much they enjoyed the book.)”

Wolfsthal said he wasn’t expecting a big window office, but his new Old Executive Office building location would be “proximate” to that of Tony Blinken, Vice President Biden’s veteran national security advisor.