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Joe Cirincione's Blog Posts

Joseph Cirincione is President of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation. He is the author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons and Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats. He is a member of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's International Security Advisory Board, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the World Economic Forum Global Council on Catastrophic Risks.
Obama's Turn on Nuclear Weapons
When U.S. President Barack Obama took to the podium during a rare visit to the Pentagon early last month, he announced a new strategy for the country's military posture abroad. The United States would shift from being able to fight two major wars simultaneously to increasing its focus on Asia. But the president also explained that reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal would be key to future defense: "We will continue to get rid of outdated Cold War-era systems," he said, "so that we can invest in the capabilities we need for the future." Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on February 2, 2012
Department of Defense, Joe Cirincione, new start, Nuclear Budget, Nuclear Policy Guidance, Obama
A War We Never Should Have Waged
The Iraq War is the greatest strategic blunder in American history. It cost our nation $1 trillion, the lives of thousands of our finest warriors, and our international credibility. It made defeating al-Qaeda harder, stopping Iran more difficult, and global security more precarious. It was not, as some now say, simply the fault of bad intelligence. Our senior officials willfully and systematically misled the American people and our closest allies on the most crucial question any government faces: Must we go to war? Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on December 15, 2011
Bush, Carl Levin, Diplomacy with Iran, Iraq, Joe Cirincione, Saddam Hussein, War Costs, Weapons of Mass Destruction, WMDs in Iraq, Intelligence
A Credible Number, A Needed Debate
There is no official number that tells American citizens how much our government is spending on nuclear weapons. In fact, we are not even precisely sure how many nuclear weapons we have. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on November 30, 2011
Nuclear Posture Review, Department of Defense, F-35, Joe Cirincione, Nuclear Budget, SSBNX
Searching for Cuts, Congress Spars Over Nuclear Weapons
The following originally appeared as a post on The Atlantic Politics. As the congressional "supercommittee" moves toward recommendations to cut over $1 trillion from the government's budgets, House members have squared off over whether some savings can come from the hundreds of billions of dollars planned for nuclear weapons over the next 10 years. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on October 13, 2011
Congress, Joe Cirincione, Markey, Nuclear Budget, Politics, Supercommittee, Turner
A New Leader at a Key Moment
I’m thrilled to introduce Philip Yun as Ploughshares Fund’s new Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer. Philip has the talent, the drive and the know-how to help lead Ploughshares Fund to new levels of achievement. As many know, after fourteen years of outstanding leadership, our Executive Director Naila Bolus decided to leave this year to become the president of Jumpstart, an early education organization based in Boston. I joined Ploughshares Fund because of Naila. There is no one who could fill her shoes in exactly the same way.  Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on September 15, 2011
Executive Director, Joe Cirincione, partners, Philip Yun, Ploughshares Fund
Libyan Victory Validates Obama Doctrine
The collapse of the Gaddafi regime firmly establishes the benefits of Obama's national security strategy over the failed war policies that preceded him -- and are still promoted by his critics. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on August 24, 2011
NATO, David Cameron, Fareed Zakaria, Foreign Policy, Gaddafi, Joe Cirincione, Libya, Nicolas Sarkozy, Obama Doctrine, strategy, Susan Rice
The Budget Crisis Offers Opportunity To Bend The Arc Of Nuclear Policy
The U.S. government spends $54 billion a year on nuclear weapons and related programs. Despite the deep fiscal crisis, these budgets are about to go up — to a whopping $700 billion over the next 10 years. It is not at all clear why. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on August 10, 2011
Congress, Department of Defense, Hiroshima, Joe Cirincione, Larry Korb, Nuclear Budget, Nuclear Zero, Politics, U.S. government, Obama
The Lesson of Fukushima, Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Sixty-six years and hundreds of kilometers separate the disaster at Fukushima and the hibakusha, the Japanese word for survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings of August 6 and 9, 1945. But the lesson is the same: Nuclear technology is inherently dangerous whether in a nuclear power plant or a nuclear bomb. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on August 8, 2011
Japan, fukushima, Nagasaki, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons, U.S. Nuclear Policy, United States
A Fond Farewell to a Superstar
After 14 years at the helm of Ploughshares Fund, Executive Director Naila Bolus is leaving us to become president of another national non-profit organization based in Boston. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on July 20, 2011
How to Shave a Bundle Off the Deficit: Spend Less on Nukes
Congress is in the midst of an intense debate over a massive defense spending bill, and budget negotiations between the Administration and congressional leaders are at a pivotal stage. One key part of our nation's budget must be on the table: nuclear weapons. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on July 15, 2011
Nuclear Budget, Nuclear Weapons, U.S. Foreign Policy, Defense Budget, U.S. Nuclear Policy, Other, United States