Former Secretary of Defense
William J. Perry has become the newest member of Ploughshares Fund's advisory board. An expert in U.S. foreign policy, national security and arms control, Dr. Perry served as the 19th Secretary of Defense for the United States, serving from February 1994 to January 1997 under President Bill Clinton. In 2007, he joined three other eminent statesmen, former Secretaries of State
George P. Shultz and
Henry Kissinger and former Senator
Sam Nunn in calling for the United States to take the lead in reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons. Their op-ed, "
A World Free of Nuclear Weapons ", published in the
Wall Street Journal , reverberated throughout the world, and is one of the key factors that convinced political leaders and experts internationally that the conditions are in place to achieve that goal.