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.
A third round of nuclear talks between the Iran and the P5+1 concluded today in Moscow, with no major breakthroughs – but perhaps more importantly, no major breakdowns.
Summer’s here! Time to kick back and… brush up on nuclear policy? Whether you’re looking for a beach read, or are from San Francisco like us – where summer proved to be Mark Twain’s “coldest winter” – these summer months are a great time to dive into a good book. Did our New Year’s list leave you hungry for more? These 12 books - from Shute’s science-fiction to Alibek’s science-all-too-real – should do the trick:
To give us a better handle on the current situation with Iran, we spoke with Reza Marashi, Research Director for the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). Reza served in the U.S. Department of State for four years in the Office of Iranian Affairs, and his articles have appeared in publications including The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, and The National Interest. He is a contributor to CNN, NPR, and the BBC, among others. Here, he gives us his take on the latest developments in Iran and what they might mean for national security.
The State Department released the latest data on New START today, making public the count of warheads now deployed by both the U.S. and Russia and revealing the progress toward full compliance with the treaty.
Though the Baghdad talks have been criticized in the press for failing to achieve a breakthrough, a discussion hosted this week by the Atlantic Council’s Iran Task Force suggested that there is hope in the fact that “these were the first substantive discussions between Iran and the international community on the issue of the nuclear program in more than two years.”
Ploughshares Fund board member Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) honored America’s veterans with President Barack Obama at the Vietnam War Memorial on May 28. I was in the audience as his guest when the Senator reminded us, “There is no glory in war, only suffering.”
The ratification of New START by the U.S. and Russia set a new ceiling for deployed strategic nuclear weapons at 1,550 in each country. Given the cost of maintaining these weapons and their lack of utility on the modern battlefield, the U.S. could (and should) go even lower.
In tight budget times, the U.S. Navy cannot afford to waste funds on excessive capabilities for outdated Cold War weapons. Yet that is what some in Congress are attempting to do by blocking retirement of excess nuclear-armed submarines.
Supporting the troops is an important value for many Americans. Unfortunately, both soldiers and veterans often get short shrift when it comes to actually allocating budgets.
Indiana Senator Richard Lugar is a tough, seasoned conservative who could be brutal when fighting for his positions. When it came to national security issues, however, Senator Lugar always put the national interest above partisan politics.
The following is a guest post from Ashish Sinha, Program Manager at Physicians for Social Responsibility.
In recent weeks, nuclear-capable missile tests by North Korea, India, and Pakistan have reminded all of us why national security experts continue to feel South Asia and the Korean Peninsula represent among the highest risks to international peace and stability.