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Sally Lilienthal
Sally Lilienthal founded Ploughshares Fund and served as its President until her death in 2006. Learn more...
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Ploughshares Fund Arrives in Washington
Senator Chuck Hagel and board member Michael Douglas inaugurate Ploughshares' new office in the nation's capital.
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New Leaders for a New Future
Ploughshares Fund introduces seven individuals who are leading the way to security and peace in the 21st century. Meet them here.NEWS & Comments
Feinstein: Let's commit to a nuclear-free world.
Posted by Terri Lodge
on Jan 03, 2009; From Wall Street Journal
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who will chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111th Congress, warns in today's Wall Street Journal of a potential "cascade" of nuclear proliferation unless President-elect Obama reverses the nuclear policies of the past administration, which sought to expand the U.S. nuclear arsenal. "I was 12 when atomic bombs flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 people. The horrific images that went around the world have stayed with me all my life," she writes. "Today, there are enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world hundreds of times. And we now face the chilling prospect of nuclear terrorism. The bottom line: We must recognize nuclear weapons for what they are -- not a deterrent, but a grave and gathering threat to humanity. As president, Barack Obama should dedicate himself to their world-wide elimination."
What a year it could be.
on Jan 01, 2009; From Huffington Post
"Even as the new president and administration struggle to restructure and transform the American economy in 2009, consider this possibility: 2009 could be the year when the two former Cold warriors, America and Russia, decide to make dramatic reductions in nuclear weapons and convene an international conference of all nuclear nations to agree to the complete elimination of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth," writes former Senator Gary Hart, chairman of the Ploughshares-funded Council for a Livable World.
The very dangerous nuclear deal with India.
Posted by Joseph Cirincione
on Dec 31, 2008; From Newsweek
The U.S.-India pact has been hailed as a triumph. It was just the opposite."It is hard to overstate what a mistake this was. India has now been granted all the privileges of a recognized nuclear-weapons state but with none of the responsibilities. The other two nuclear-armed nations outside the treaty, Pakistan and Israel, are sure to demand equal treatment; other nations, like Japan, may reconsider their nuclear options. Georgetown University School of Foreign Service dean Robert Gallucci says the deal will "open the door to the true proliferation of nuclear weapons in the years ahead." The danger in South Asia seems especially high.
Obama names Holdren chief science advisor.
Posted by Deborah Bain
on Dec 29, 2008; From Scientific American
President-elect Barack Obama named Harvard physicist John Holdren, a former Ploughshares Fund grantee, to the position of director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, a move that bodes well for sound policymaking on nuclear weapons and climate change. "A physicist renowned for his work on climate and energy, Holdren...has been one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change," Obama said in announcing Holdren’s appointment. Holdren was an outspoken critic of science policy under the Bush Administration. Prior to his tenure at Harvard, Holdren directed the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, where he conducted groundbreaking work on the disposition of weapons plutonium in Russia, with Ploughshares Fund support.
The fear factor and nuclear terrorism.
Posted by Deborah Bain
on Dec 16, 2008; From Alternet
Reflecting on last week's alarming report from the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, Alexander Zaitchik writes in Alternet that "when it comes to public opinion, the nuclear question is trickier than most. The mere discussion of nuclear dangers, some studies suggest, appears to drive the public away from the very policies that would reduce them." He cites a Ploughshares-funded study by American Environics, which examined the role of fear in motivating public action around nuclear issues. Says Ploughshares Fund Executive Director Naila Bolus, "understanding the role of fear and how to use or counter it will be an important element in our ability to accomplish [our] goals. Fear can be both a motivator and an inhibitor, and recent research has shown that, post-9/11, certain phrases such as 'nuclear terrorism' can trigger a reflexive conservative response that leads the public to oppose further reductions in nuclear weapons."
