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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 John Kerry's International Security Advisory Board and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Roger Hale, Chairman Emeritus with Mary Lloyd Estrin, Board Chairwoman
Meet Our New Board Chair: Mary Lloyd Estrin
We are delighted to announce that the Ploughshares Fund Board of Directors on June 17, 2013 unanimously elected Mary Lloyd Estrin as the new chair. As a board member and president of the foundation, I am excited to work with her as we continue to build Ploughshares Fund as a smart, innovative and effective force for change. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on June 17, 2013
Board of Directors, Partners, Roger Hale
Picture of President John F. Kennedy
JFK’s Historic Plea for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament
June 10 marks the 50th anniversary of one of JFK's most important speeches and one of the most powerful pleas ever given by a US president for nuclear disarmament. He touches on many issues that we still wrestle with today, including nuclear war, disarmament, banning all nuclear tests, and the defeatist belief that change is impossible.  Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on June 10, 2013
CTBT, JFK, Joe Cirincione, LTBT, Test Ban
Susan Rice on Nuclear Weapons
Susan Rice does not speak very often on nuclear policy, but behind the scenes she played a major role in shaping Barack Obama’s nuclear weapons positions in the 2008 campaign. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on June 5, 2013
Nuclear Zero, Susan Rice, United States
The President's Prague Agenda on the Brink
On Thursday, Rachel Maddow asked me if President Obama was going to fulfill the visionary agenda he laid out four years ago in Prague. I paused. What should I say? I support this agenda to move us step by step towards what Obama termed "the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." But progress has been slow. I took a deep breath and answered the only way I could: honestly. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on April 5, 2013
Chuck Hagel, Department of Defense, Des Brown, Fissile Material, John Kerry, Minister of Defense, MSNBC, Nuclear Security, Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Zero, Prague, Prague speech, President Obama, Rachel Maddow, Sam Nunn, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, United Kingdom, White House, Ploughshares Fund, United States
Alaskan Folly
We've doubled down on a defense that doesn't work against missiles that don't exist. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on March 21, 2013
North Korea, Alaska, Foreign Policy, Fort Greely, ground-based interceptor, Joe Cirincione, Missile Defense, Missile Defense Agency, Nuclear Weapons, Secretary Hagel
All-Star Nuclear Policy Team
President Barack Obama has assembled perhaps the most knowledgeable senior nuclear policy team in American history. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on February 27, 2013
Bill Perry, Chuck Hagel, Gottemoeller, Joe Cirincione, John Kerry, Nuclear Zero, Rose Gottemoeller, Tom Donilon
The Tick Tock of the Doomsday Clock
The minute hand of the Doomsday Clock will stay at five minutes to midnight for the year 2013, say the scientists and experts at The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists who maintain one of the world’s most famous time pieces. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on January 15, 2013
Doomsday Clock, Nuclear Zero, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Re-elected, Obama Reaffirms His Vision (Video)
On Monday, December 3, I was honored to be part of a select audience for President Obama's first national security speech since his reelection. That night, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rachel Maddow to talk about the President’s speech. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on December 5, 2012
Joe Cirincione, Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Zero, Rachel Maddow, Video
A Tale of Two Mitts
For a sense of what's at stake for nuclear policy in this year's election, consider this: The U.S. government is on track to spend $640 billion over the next 10 years on nuclear weapons and related programs -- more than the military's budget for an entire year. The next president will make key policy decisions early in his term that will have an impact on these budgets and global security more broadly. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on November 6, 2012
Barack Obama, Election, Foreign Policy, Joe Cirincione, Mitt Romney, Nuclear Weapons
A Victory for Good Government
When 19 Senators write the administration to demand funding for a pet project, they usually get what they want.  But not this time.  This time common sense, fiscal realities and the hard work of dozens of Ploughshares Fund grantees combined to kill a wasteful and unnecessary nuclear bomb factory. Read more »
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Posted by Joe Cirincione on September 23, 2012
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, CMRR, Continuing Resolution, Friends Committee on National Legislation, House Appropriations Committee, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nuclear Budget, Plutonium, Senate Appropriations Committee, Stockpile stewardship, Union of Concerned Scientists