The New Arms Race

Nuclear weapons do nothing to protect us from 21st century threats. Yet the US government is planning to spend over $2 trillion during the next 30 years to rebuild its arsenal – plans that could push Russia, China and other countries to build even more nuclear weapons. In short, the world is on the brink of a new nuclear arms race that will only accelerate if current plans stay on track.

Every dollar spent on re-building our arsenal is a dollar less for our true defense needs. We need to end wasteful nuclear programs and to realign our spending priorities with today’s threats.

Latest News and Analysis on the New Nuclear Arms Race

Facing Nuclear Threats

Gael Tarleton is a Ploughshares Fund board member who also represents the 36^th district of the Washington State legislature, a seahorse-shaped swath of Seattle nearly entirely surrounded by water that embodies the maritime spirit of the city’s past and future. The 36^th...

August 19, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund
William Hartung on Press the Button

This is a transcript of a recent interview from the podcast Press the Button. William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, sits down with Joe Cirincione to discuss the corporate connection to US arms sales...

August 19, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund
A Deep Dive on the National Defense Authorization Bill

Michelle: On Friday the House of Representatives approved its Defense Authorization bill 220 to 197. No Republicans supported the typically bipartisan measure, and by typically bipartisan I mean over the past 58 years. Abigail, I read that one of the reasons the Republicans did not vote for it...

July 19, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund
House Stops Trump’s New Nuke

Ploughshares Fund and its partners won a huge victory on July 12 when the House of Representatives voted to halt deployment of President Trump’s new, more usable, “low-yield” nuclear weapon—the first House vote to stop a new nuclear weapon in over a decade. With 95 percent of Democrats voting as...

July 15, 2019 - By Tom Collina
A new, hopeful moment for US nuclear policy

Underneath the daily, depressing headlines, five converging trends offer hope, for the first time in more than a decade, for dramatic positive change in US nuclear policy. The first trend is the growing recognition that current US nuclear security strategies have failed to make America safer....

April 17, 2019 - By Joe Cirincione
Democrats Are Pushing for a New Nuclear Policy

There is a new urgency and momentum on nuclear issues in Congress. Triggered initially by an impetuous president’s unfettered ability to launch a nuclear strike, concerns have mounted as Trump administration policies worsen already serious nuclear threats. Members are rousing to action with new...

February 13, 2019 - By Joe Cirincione
Tear up the INF Treaty, Start a New Arms Race

John Bolton and Donald Trump are shredding the nuclear safety net that Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, labored for fifty years to construct. We must stop them before it is too late. In recent days, we have received more requests for funding than we can meet. Requests from...

February 11, 2019 - By Joe Cirincione
Welcome to the new nuclear arms race

If you missed out on the first nuclear arms race, you’re in luck. It’s back. On Friday, the Trump administration announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a landmark deal signed in 1987 by President Reagan. This treaty marked the beginning of the...

February 5, 2019 - By Tom Collina
INF Treaty Withdrawal

The Trump administration's announcement of withdrawal from the INF Treaty, a key nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, is a major blow to the nuclear security safety net constructed over several decades. The withdrawal will likely further thrust the US and Russia...

February 1, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund
Stopping Trump's Wall in Space

President Trump vowed on Thursday, as The New York Times put it, to “reinvigorate and reinvent American missile defenses.” The president’s problematic presentation followed the release of his administration's long-delayed Missile Defense Review, a wasteful, destabilizing plan which...

January 18, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund