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.
President Obama’s administration portrayed the 2010 nuclear arms reduction treaty—which provides modest cuts to US and Russian strategic arsenals—as a means to “prime the pump” to achieve deeper and more comprehensive cuts down the road. But after enduring a grueling fight with Senate Republicans to ratify the treaty, the administration decided to table new talks with Russia until after the 2012 presidential elections, when the new political environment would make an agreement easier to achieve.
Is it illogical to think of a world without nuclear weapons? Must we accept the world as it is, with nuclear weapons, as many in the high priesthood of strategic policy insist? That was a broad reaction to the effort to get rid of them that Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev made at the Reykjavik Summit 26 years ago in what George Shultz has called “the highest stakes poker game ever played.” And I still hear it frequently today.
Whether or not the nation zooms over the fiscal cliff, the Pentagon’s budget is going to get tighter. This may be a challenge for some. But it’s also an opportunity for the Pentagon to shift away from Cold War weapons and reshape the U.S. military to deal with 21st century realities.
It comes down to a simple question: Should the U.S. put its money toward a Cold War nuclear strategy? Or should those funds be spent to equip the military to address 21st century realities?
I just returned from a week in Beijing. What a change. Scores of modern skyscrapers with international brand names and products emblazoned atop have sprung up where none existed as little as five years ago. Shining shopping malls are filled with the latest fashions and products. Streets are choked with thousands of cars and buses where packs of bicycles and motorcycles once ruled.
Lisa Esherick is a painter, teacher, gardener and a person committed to a world where “everyone and everything thrives.” A resident of Berkeley, CA, Lisa is involved with many organizations, both local and international, that support the arts, education, health, food and housing, the
There's no doubt: Hurricane Sandy has left her mark. The damage the storm left to basic infrastructure on the East Coast will take billions of dollars and months (if not years) to repair. But, hurricane damage costs pale in comparison to the spending our country is already planning to dole out to America's nuclear weapons and related programs.
Although the United States has not tested a nuclear weapon for twenty years, we still spend billions each year on an array of machines that conduct all kinds of diagnostic experiments to mimic nuclear explosions. One of the most expensive is called the National Ignition Facility (NIF).
On October 17, Russia successfully launched a newly designed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), with President Putin on hand to personally oversee the event.
Things have changed since 1962. Hippies have given way to hipsters, cellphones give you the news faster than the local news team can, only two Beatles are left, and the Soviet Union doesn’t even exist anymore. The Cold War atmosphere has evaporated and the risk of all-out nuclear war has dramatically decreased. However, a similar type of nuclear crisis that happened in Cuba in 1962 unfortunately could still happen today.
Welcome to 1962. Slick back your hair, grab a scotch, and don’t forget to triple check that route to the nearest Fallout Shelter. It is October after all, the month in which the US and the Soviet Union came closer to nuclear war than any other time in history. The nation held its breath as President John F. Kennedy faced off with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in waters just offshore of Cuba.
It's not easy to know how much our nation pays for our nuclear weapons programs. There is no official nuclear weapons budget. Instead, government spending accounts are often opaque, poorly defined and always spread out over several government agencies.
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.
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.