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 would only add fuel to the new global nuclear arms race. 

Ploughshares Fund, the largest US philanthropic organization focused exclusively on nuclear security, was called upon to highlight research and analysis from our network of experts who have been rightly critical of missile defense. In a PBS Newshour segment Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione said Trump's missile defense plans: "would take major technological breakthroughs, decades of work and trillions of dollars … it stimulates the very thing it's supposed to prevent, a new arms race."

Cirincione was also quoted in The New York Times [1], Los Angeles Times [2] and Newsweek [3], providing a critical perspective necessary for public debate. "If you liked the president's border wall, wait until you see his space wall," said Cirincione. "This is a complete fantasy." 

Ploughshares Fund grantee, Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation hosted the press call which led to coverage to Newsweek and New York Times. National media attention from the press call also included Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation’s executive director John Tierney being quoted in WIRED Magazine [4], as well as their senior policy director Alexandra Bell being quoted in the Washington Post [5].

To learn more about missile defense and Trump’s dangerous plan read Cirincione's analysis in The National Interest. [6] His analysis includes recommendations for what a sensible, affordable missile defense plan would be — one that, as Cirincione says, "doesn’t pour gasoline on an already fiery arms race."

These dangerous missile defense plans are being presented just as the Trump administration seems to be removing the few restraints on Russia’s weapons and also while the US is on track to spend $2 trillion over the next 30 years on an excessive rebuild of its existing nuclear force.

As the 19th US Secretary of Defense William J. Perry has said, "There is only one way to win an arms race: Refuse to run."

Join us in our work to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons, to stop their spread and to build peace in regions of conflict where nuclear weapons exist. Together, we can stop a new nuclear arms race.