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Ploughshares Blog: United States

The United States invented nuclear weapons, operates the second largest nuclear force in the world and holds the dubious distinction of being the only country to use these weapons in combat. As a result, the U.S. has a special responsibility to lead the way in reducing its own nuclear weapons stockpile and calling for other nuclear armed nations to follow suite. Following is analysis and opinion from Ploughshares Fund staff, grantees and guests on the ongoing struggle to deal with nuclear weapons in the United States.
Three Paths toward a Nuclear Deal with Iran
It’s easy to miss amid the escalation of sanctions and nuclear bravado, but EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Tehran’s lead negotiator Saeed Jalili will meet on May 15 in Istanbul to follow up on last months talks between the P5+1 and Iran. The last round of multilateral talks ended inconclusively, and it has taken a little over a month to get even a one-on-one meeting on the calendar. While no date has been set for a new round of talks with representatives from all seven countries at the table, the upcoming meeting between Ashton and Jalili provides an opportunity to begin planning for how to make negotiations more productive than previous attempts. Getting on a road more promising than the current intermittent exchanges will require a few key steps: Read more »
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Posted by Reza Marashi on May 13, 2013
Nuclear proliferation, Partners, Reza Marashi, Iran, United States
Chemical Weapons, Syria and the International Response to WMDs
The debate over Syria’s possible use of chemical weapons has been dominating the headlines. Were deadly nerve agents used? If so by whom? Was the use intentional? These questions are important since President Obama has intimated that, if confirmed, the use of chemical weapons could change U.S. policy toward the Syrian civil war. The specifics of what the United States would do differently are unclear. What is clear, though, is that the use of chemical weapons characteristically changes the way we perceive the conflict. It is, as Obama stated, a “game changer.” Read more »
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Posted by Paul Carroll on May 10, 2013
North Korea, chemical weapons, Syria, Pakistan, United States
If Boston had been nuclear
When I first heard of the Boston bombings, my immediate reaction was gratitude that the bombs weren't radioactive. Working at Ploughshares Fund, it's hard not to be aware of the very real possibility that radioactive materials could easily be part of any terrorist attack on the U.S. – domestic or foreign – and to think of how much worse that would be than the already horrible consequences of the type of IEDs used at Boston's marathon.  Read more »
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Posted by Margaret Swink on May 2, 2013
Boston, Dirty Bomb, Weapon of mass destruction, United States
Time to Pull the Plug on MOX
Some things never seem to change, sometimes to the detriment of the U.S. taxpayer. Allowing parochial interests to trump national ones is a Washington tradition that lives on. Case in point: this week Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) placed a “hold” on the nomination of Dr. Ernest Moniz, a well-respected MIT professor and former Undersecretary of Energy, to be the next head of the Department of Energy (DOE). The reason? The senator is concerned about administration plans to reduce the budget request for the plutonium fuel program at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina known as MOX. Read more »
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Posted by Paul Carroll on April 30, 2013
Department of Energy, MOX, National Nuclear Security Administration, Nuclear Budget, United States
Nobody Benefits from a Nuclear-Armed South Korea
Last week’s announcement that the U.S.-South Korea nuclear cooperation agreement would be extended for two additional years dashes the hopes of those South Korean hawks who seek to make their country a nuclear weapons state, at least for the time being. Indeed, the prospect of a nuclear-armed South Korea was so alarming to some that The New York Times ten days earlier published an editorial that came out against a nuclear cooperation agreement that would allow South Korea to enrich uranium and reprocess U.S.-sourced fuel rods to separate plutonium. For many readers, this might have caused a double take when North Korea has been leading the headlines as the region’s nuclear problem. What’s going on? Read more »
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Posted by Philip Yun on April 29, 2013
North Korea, South Korea, the New York Times, United States
The President's Prague Agenda on the Brink
On Thursday, Rachel Maddow asked me if President Obama was going to fulfill the visionary agenda he laid out four years ago in Prague. I paused. What should I say? I support this agenda to move us step by step towards what Obama termed "the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." But progress has been slow. I took a deep breath and answered the only way I could: honestly. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on April 5, 2013
Chuck Hagel, Department of Defense, Des Brown, Fissile Material, John Kerry, Minister of Defense, MSNBC, Nuclear Security, Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Zero, Prague, Prague speech, President Obama, Rachel Maddow, Sam Nunn, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, United Kingdom, White House, Ploughshares Fund, United States
Examining the North Korean Crisis
Since its most recent nuclear test on February 12, 2013, there has been a lot of attention to and activity around North Korea. The test – it’s third and most “successful” to date – elicited a predictable response in the passage of additional U.N. Security Council sanctions the. But the fact that the sanctions passed unanimously – with China’s consent – is significant, although it is still unclear if this marks a shift in Chinese policy toward North Korea. In short, the North’s latest behavior seems to have raised the game with respect to the stability and security in Northeast Asia. Read more »
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Posted by admin on April 2, 2013
China, North Korea, Joe Cirincione, Joel Rubin, Joel Wit, Paul Carroll, South Korea, U.N. Security Council, Video, United States
Banding Together for a Nuclear Test Ban
In honor of National Women’s History Month, each week Ploughshares Fund will be honoring the women who have been instrumental in advocating for nuclear nonproliferation. This week we are highlighting the work of two incredible women who helped push for a ban on atmospheric nuclear testing: Dr. Louise Reiss and Dagmar Wilson. Read more »
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Posted by Jessica Sleight on March 15, 2013
CTBT, nuclear testing, Dagmar Wilson, Louise Reiss, National Women's History Month, United States
Rose Gottemoeller: Encouraging Innovation in Arms Control
In honor of International Women’s Day today, March 8, and National Women’s History Month, each week Ploughshares Fund will be honoring the women who have been instrumental in advocating nuclear nonproliferation. Our first post recounts the invaluable work of Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Rose Gottemoeller. Read more »
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Posted by Jessica Sleight on March 8, 2013
Gottemoeller, National Women's History Month, Partners, United States
Fukushima 2013 to 20013? Legacy of the Nuclear Age
Next week marks the second anniversary of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima reactors in Japan. Remember? The days and weeks we collectively crossed our fingers as heroic workers improvised and threw everything they could at melting reactors and damaged spent fuel pools to stave off disaster? Seems like a long time gone and Fukushima has, in our collective consciousness, faded into a historical nuclear footnote. “Close call,” we may think, “but the danger is over.” Not quite. In fact, not even close. Read more »
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Posted by Paul Carroll on March 7, 2013
Japan, Chernobyl, fukushima, Hanford, Nuclear Zero, Russia, Three Mile Island, Yucca Mountain, United States