For over 40 years Ploughshares Fund has supported the most effective people and organizations in the world to reduce and ultimately eliminate the dangers posed by nuclear weapons.
On March 21, the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone (CANWFZ) Treaty formally entered into force. Kazakhstan, which once possessed the world's fourth-largest nuclear stockpile, signed the pact along with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
In a significant departure from the previous administration’s tone, President Obama welcomed "new beginnings" with Iran in a surprise video message marking Nowruz, the Iranian new year. The video does not specifically address the nuclear standoff, but instead recognizes the contribution of Iran's historical culture and calls on Tehran's leaders to turn a new page. "These challenges are interconnected and Obama gets that," said Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione.
In a significant departure from the previous administration’s tone, President Obama welcomed "new beginnings" with Iran in a surprise video message marking Nowruz, the Iranian new year. The video does not specifically address the nuclear standoff, but instead recognizes the contribution of Iran's historical culture and calls on Tehran's leaders to turn a new page. "These challenges are interconnected and Obama gets that," said Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione.
Woody Allen famously said that “90 percent of life is just showing up.” Interestingly, Allen’s advice can be applied to international diplomacy and security as much as anything else. Ploughshares Fund has been supporting people who have been “showing up” in unusual – yet critical – places. In fact, I just returned from a trip to North Korea myself.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today offered to put Britain's Trident nuclear missiles on the international negotiating table to signal that he is serious about playing a leading role in multilateral disarmament talks.
The Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication plant being built in South Carolina is over budget, nearly a decade behind schedule, and now has an ever bigger problem: no customers for its reactor fuel made from surplus weapons plutonium.
Although the Obama administration promises to "restore American leadership on space issues, seeking a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites," a soon-to-be-released analysis by
President Obama plans to nominate Rose Gottemoeller, a specialist in Russian defense and nuclear issues, for assistant secretary of state for verification and compliance. Gottemoeller, a former Energy Department official, is now at the Ploughshares-funded Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
by Alexandra Bell and Ben Loehrke of the Ploughshares Fund
Missile defense is on the chopping block. Carried through the Bush years by obsessive theology and highly staged tests, the new administration is now insisting that the weapons prove their effectiveness, affordability and necessity.
Restoring some stability in Afghanistan by talking to insurgents is an old tactic that has failed badly in the past, according to a new report by the Ploughshares-funded International Crisis Group: "While agreement may be reached not to