Ploughshares Stories

In the first zine for the Atomic Alchemy series, Jasmine explores the revolutionary capacities of grief and love as guidance for liberation in life, death, and from nuclear weapons. Atomic Alchemy Zine #1: Nuclear Weapons Abolition and the Revolutionary Capacities of Grief and Love Author Jasmine Owens Jasmine Owens is a nuclear weapons abolitionist, writer,…

 Celebrating ten years of the Paul Olum Grant Fund A family dedicated to research and reducing nuclear weapons Ken Olum made his first gift to Ploughshares in 1987 in honor of his parents Paul and Vivian Olum, longtime advocates for peace and nuclear arms control. Global stockpiles were beginning to decline from the height of…

Mother New Mexico, look at her beauty. She stretches outwards endlessly, her mountains laying calmly amongst the endless plains of her belly. She bears all kinds of children, antelope, cougars, jackrabbits and yuccas and cacti, bipedal fjelskkdke. She loves them all deeply, and gives her whole self to them. They call her home, Mother New…

Ploughshares has entered a new chapter of leadership with the election of Gretchen Hund as its new Board Chair. Hund, a former Director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) Center for Global Security, specialized in addressing emerging national security threats, including climate resilience. She came to her role on the board as a friend of…

Victories in the nuclear policy world are rarely immediate. As the largest public foundation in the US focused solely on reducing the threat of nuclear weapons, we know patience is paramount. Ploughshares’ grants often have long-term effects. In late September, a federal judge ruled that the US government’s expansive plans to produce new plutonium pits…

What if I told you your hard-earned retirement savings are likely invested in companies that manufacture weapons of war? If that doesn’t sit right with you, you’re not alone. My name is Grant Bradski, and I work at As You Sow, the nation’s leading shareholder advocacy nonprofit which works to increase corporate responsibility on a…

In preparation for the inauguration, we asked four individuals from our community with a variety of backgrounds to answer a few questions about the nuclear aspects of the Inauguration Day transfer of presidential power: Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama, and co-host of the podcast Pod Save the World; Amy…

“Starfleet directive, General Order #1 “The Starfleet should not interfere with the social, cultural or technological development of any other planet.” – Star Trek Humankind will never run out of things to conquer. That may be a cynical take on the nature of humankind, but the history of space exploration, nearly every exploration, has yet…

Last September, Horizon 2045 and Ploughshares co-hosted “Security & the Future,” a three-day symposium designed to promote long-term thinking about intersections between nuclear challenges and other global threats to human and planetary security. More than 100 colleagues from civil society, philanthropy, the private sector, and government attended the symposium, engaging in provocative cross-issue conversations focused…