As Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, Tauscher managed the State Department’s interactions with the Pentagon and oversaw three bureaus of more than 600 foreign service officers; she also represented the United States at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the United Nations in May 2010, which produced what was widely hailed as the first consensus agreement in more than a decade.
The New Start treaty was signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev on April 8, 2010, while Tauscher — even as she suffered the devastating effects of treatment for Stage 3 esophageal cancer — continued to provide strategy and political counsel to the Secretary of State from her hospital bed, Clinton told POLITICO. “While she was fighting for her life,’’ Clinton recalled, “she was fighting to save lives from nuclear attacks around the world.”
After three years at the State Department working under Clinton, Tauscher served as a leading campaign surrogate for the former Secretary of State, her close friend, during the 2016 presidential race.