Press the Button

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A new episode of Press the Button is available every Tuesday.

An engaging podcast on nuclear policy and national security, Press the Button is co-hosted by defense experts Joe Cirincione and Michelle Dover of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation. This weekly podcast features top officials and experts discussing the latest developments on Iran, North Korea, nuclear weapons, military budgets and foreign policy. Press the Button offers diverse views on one of the most important issues of our time: preventing nuclear war.

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The Real Lessons of Trinity and Hiroshima

by Zack Brown, originally published in The National Interest. Listen to the whole episode on Press the Button.Most Americans are only familiar with a symbolic history of the atomic bomb, one that can lead people “to be very supportive of policies that have been bad for the country,” argued...

July 15, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
Reverting Back to 'Cold War' Thinking: The Real Nuclear Danger Everyone Is Missing

American policymakers “have reverted back to Cold War thinking” on US nuclear weapons, argues former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry in his new book with Ploughshares Fund’s Tom Collina, “...

July 9, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
A 'Post-Policy' World: Do Facts Matter?

Do facts matter? Not to today’s Republican Party, argues Steve Benen, the Emmy Award-winning producer of The Rachel Maddow Show, in his essential new book, The Imposters: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics. “The current iteration of the GOP is indifferent to the...

June 23, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
How to Realize Diversity in the National Security Community

When she saw the video of George Floyd’s murder, Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, an arms control expert who had spent years ascending the ranks of Washington’s national security elite, felt she had to act. With the help of her colleague, Neda Shaheen, Jenkins penned an open letter titled, “...

June 16, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
How America Became So Divided

The state of the union today is a state of upheaval, said veteran journalist David Corn. We are in the midst of a perfect storm of interlocking crises — a pandemic that has killed one hundred and ten thousand Americans, an economic collapse that threatens tens of millions more, nationwide...

June 9, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
Can Israel Stay Democratic After Annexation?

The future of a democratic Israel could be decided in the next few months as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushes to annex large portions of the occupied West Bank. President Donald Trump’s backing of the plan is another indicator of why we need a dramatically new national security strategy...

May 27, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
Coronavirus Crisis: A Pandemic and Great Depression, Combined

America faces an unprecedented trio of crises that threatens its standing in the world, said David Rothkopf, former editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy and host of the popular podcast Deep State Radio. “It’s the worst public health crisis the United States has faced in over one hundred years...

May 20, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
The Anthropocene Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic is not only a public health issue, said former NASCAR driver and environmental activist Leilani Münter. It’s also a showcase for the threats posed by the strain humanity is putting on the planet. Case in point: while we still don’t know the exact source of COVID-19, we...

May 12, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
Masks Over Missiles: New Rules for Pentagon Funding

Representative Ro Khanna (D.-CA) recently laid down some new rules for the Pentagon budget: Fund public health over weapons; freeze defense programs at current levels; resist Senate pressure to cave on House priorities; and develop a “modern, expansive definition of national security that...

May 4, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
How Blocking Immigration Hurts US National Security

President Donald Trump’s new executive order barring broad categories of immigrants from entering the country may bring real harm to US national security. “The pandemic has highlighted for us that national security also involves the assets that we can harness and put against an invisible enemy...

April 27, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund