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Senate Panel Ditches East Coast Missile Defense Idea
  On the radar: Setting up missile defense scrum in Congress; After Iran’s election; Tennessee’s $10 billion nuclear disaster; the Bomb of yesteryear; Hadley, Lieberman and Steinberg on Iran; and Kim Jong-il’s sushi chef.   Read more »
EARLY WARNING for June 14, 2013
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The Mouse that Keeps Roaring: The United States, China and Solving the North Korean Challenge
Say what you will about North Korea. It’s “backwards,” impoverished, isolated, led by an enigmatic, secretive leader, or even that it is “the land of no smiles” whose people live a life on the edge of survival. To varying degrees, these negative descriptions are true. It’s hard to escape the stark reality that a nation of some 23 million people with reasonably rich mineral and agricultural resources produces less than one-tenth than the state of Pennsylvania – roughly the same size but with half the population. Read more »
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Posted by Paul Carroll on September 27, 2012
China, Japan, North Korea, Foreign Policy, national security, Nuclear proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Paul Carroll, South Korea, Yale Journal of International Affairs
VIDEO: 3 Things to Remember about Iran
Mike Breen is the kind of guy you want to talk to about serious issues. A veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and a graduate of Yale Law School, his warm easy style makes it easy to understand complex national security policy issues. Good thing that Breen is the Vice President of the Truman National Security Project, a dynamic group in Washington, DC founded to encourage veterans to speak out on security issues. After a terrific event hosted by Chronicle Books, Breen sat down with Ploughshares Fund to talk about Iran - one of the hottest foreign policy issues today.  Read more »
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Posted by admin on September 25, 2012
Mike Breen, Partners, Truman National Security Project, Video, Iran
A Victory for Good Government
When 19 Senators write the administration to demand funding for a pet project, they usually get what they want.  But not this time.  This time common sense, fiscal realities and the hard work of dozens of Ploughshares Fund grantees combined to kill a wasteful and unnecessary nuclear bomb factory. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on September 23, 2012
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, CMRR, Continuing Resolution, Friends Committee on National Legislation, House Appropriations Committee, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nuclear Budget, Plutonium, Senate Appropriations Committee, Stockpile stewardship, Union of Concerned Scientists
Dirty Bombs, Muddy Thinking
Governor Mitt Romney's description, caught on video, of what he considered the real nuclear threat from Iran has further undermined his national security credentials, showing a fundamental misunderstanding of nuclear threats. Iran's nuclear program has nothing to do with dirty bombs. Terrorists would not use uranium -- from Iran or anywhere else -- in a dirty bomb. It is unclear if Gov. Romney was just riffing, or if his advisors had fed him this line of attack. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on September 19, 2012
Dirty Bombs, Joe Cirincione, Mitt Romney, Nuclear Weapons, Iran
Costs and Benefits: The Iran Project
A quick scan of daily headlines will prove that there has been no shortage of debate over Iran’s nuclear program. The trouble is, the debate thus far has been “fact-free, partisan, and not very nuanced,” as MIT professor Jim Walsh commented yesterday at the launch of a new report from The Iran Project. Read more »
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Posted by Leah Fae Cochran on September 14, 2012
Israel, Bill Luers, Chuck Hagel, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Jim Walsh, Joe Sestak, Military Strikes, Nuclear proliferation, Thomas Pickering, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Iran
What Chris Stevens Taught Us
Chris Stevens and three American colleagues from the U.S. mission in Libya were killed by a mob yesterday. The first American governmental deaths in the Arab world since the Arab Spring began less than two years ago, their deaths should be a clarion call to our country about the risks that those who serve our country abroad take. And Chris’ example of religious tolerance, support for freedom, and belief in democracy should be followed in the days ahead, as we respond to this tragedy. Read more »
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Posted by Joel Rubin on September 12, 2012
Arab Spring, Chris Stevens, Foreign Service, Libya, Partners, Peace Corps, U.S. mission in Libya
Clarifying the Iran Debate: Viewing the Latest IAEA report
Media reports buzzed with words like “capabilities,” “redlines” and “zones of immunity” following the release of last week’s report on Iran’s nuclear program by the International Atomic Energy Agency.  Those words are concerning, but not precise. What did the IAEA report actually say? Read more »
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Posted by Ploughshares Fund on September 6, 2012
Iran
Heather Hurlburt Honored by Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy magazine named Ploughshares Fund grantee Heather Hurlburt one of the top 50 most powerful Democrats on foreign policy September 3. Heather is the executive director of the National Security Network (NSN). Read more »
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Posted by Rebecca Remy on September 6, 2012
Democrats, Foreign Policy, Grantee, national security
The Loose Talk of War with Iran Returns
The loose talk of war is back after a brief period of calm. But what is the strategy here? Is Israel really planning to bomb Iran? We don't yet know the answer, but the impact of this type of saber rattling is decidedly negative. Read more »
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Posted by Joel Rubin on August 30, 2012
Israel, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Dennis Ross, Jeff Goldberg, Meir Dagan, Nuclear Program, Shaul Mofaz, Shimon Peres, Strikes, war, Iran
Continue to Fold Your Peace Cranes
In August 1945, an estimated 185,000 people lost their lives as a result of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which represent the first and only nuclear attacks on earth. We are working to ensure they are also the last. Read more »
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Posted by admin on August 29, 2012
Facebook, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Nuclear Zero, peace cranes