Culture and Nuclear Weapons

If we change our cultural conceptions of nuclear weapons, we can make the world safer from nuclear threats.

The dangers of nuclear weapons are rarely communicated in a way that is compelling and accessible, despite the fact that these risks affect us all. At Ploughshares Fund, we are exploring the power of media, technology, and popular culture to change perceptions and attitudes. Learn more about our Cultural Change Initiative here.

Latest News, Analysis and Explorations of Culture and Nuclear Weapons

  • Video: Moms Drop Truth Bombs

    Watch the full video recording of the event, above. Women and mothers have been protesting, advocating and leading nuclear disarmament movements and initiatives for decades, all across the globe. Ploughshares Fund is celebrating this Mother’s Day with a panel of women who are, each in her own...

    May 14, 2021 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Experimenting with 'the bomb'

    If you’ve ever wondered who is really in command and who is in control, Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser have some answers for you. Keshari, the critically acclaimed New York-based artist and filmmaker collaborated with author Eric Schlosser on the Tribeca (and Netflix) sleeper hit film, ‘the...

    April 30, 2021 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Remembering Sally Lilienthal on her birthday

    Sally Lilienthal was on a quest to change the world. It was 1981, and she had invited public service leader Lew Butler and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Owen Chamberlain down the wooden staircase to a living room balcony extending over a San Francisco cliff below. Chamberlain, one of the world’s...

    March 16, 2021 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • How the US and North Korea Could Sleepwalk Into a Nuclear War

    January 13th, 2018 started out like any other Saturday in Hawaii before it took a dramatic turn. At 8:07 AM, the Hawaii emergency management agency broadcast an official message to more than one million people: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii seek immediate shelter. This is not a...

    March 16, 2021 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Preventing Conflict and Building Regional Security

    Special challenges arise when nuclear weapons and conventional conflict intersect, as they do in South Asia, home of two of the nine countries that have nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan. In this region, the escalation of conventional conflict could lead to the use or loss of control of...

    February 18, 2021 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • The Capitol Attacks Exposed America's Flawed Exceptionalism

    This month’s attacks on the Capitol confronted us with the dark forces of glorified violence and white supremacy that have—like it or not—always been at the center of the American experience. As we process what happened, we must grapple with the reality that these attacks stem from much deeper...

    January 20, 2021 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Ploughshares Fund President Emma Belcher announces first slate of special grants with roots in Washington state

    With the aim of convening partners who have a range of backgrounds and experiences to think big about transforming nuclear policy, new Ploughshares Fund President Emma Belcher announces today the first slate of special grants under her tenure. As part of the discretionary grants process and the...

    November 17, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Responsible Disruption

    The Ploughshares Fund Women’s Initiative held an energizing conversation via Zoom, Responsible Disruption: Women’s Participation, Perspectives and Power, Tuesday, October 20. Guest speakers were: Ambassador Laura Holgate, Mareena Robinson Snowden and Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, and the event was...

    October 21, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Towards a Feminist Foreign Policy in the US

    In May 2020, Ploughshares Fund was proud to be one of the more than 70 organizations to endorse a white paper outlining what a US feminist foreign policy might look like: Towards a Feminist...

    October 6, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • A Narrow View of National Security Is Making America Less Safe

    “They want to explode a bomb in the desert to show how scary it is,” said Laicie Heeley, CEO of Inkstick media, and host of the Inkstick and PRX podcast Things That Go Boom. “They want to make a big show of force that is credible and accountable. And there’s value to those strategies when they...

    September 24, 2020 - By Will Lowry