Ploughshares Blog: Defense Budget

From the very first moment that Ploughshares Fund was founded, we understood that people don’t want to fund paperclips, they want to fund peace. That’s why every dollar you donate goes directly to our grantmaking program, with nothing subtracted for administrative or overhead costs. That means your contribution funds a carefully selected set of grants to the smartest people with the best ideas for effective nuclear weapons policy, all with the shared goal of eliminating nuclear weapons. Read more »
Posted by Megan Murphy on December 16, 2011
As the dust settles on the debt ceiling deal, it’s become clear that major cuts to defense spending have not only been approved in a bipartisan manner by Congress, but that even more are on the way. This means that the days of unlimited defense spending increases, where all systems can be purchased, are over. Read more »
Posted by Joel Rubin on August 3, 2011
In the United States, heated debates about the deficit and the debt ceiling are forcing policymakers to take a hard look at reductions across the board, including cuts to defense spending. A new report from Ploughshares Fund grantee Global Zero reminds us that it’s not just the U.S. struggling with the fiscal burden of maintaining – and modernizing – an arsenal of nuclear weapons. Read more »
Posted by Kelly Bronk on July 21, 2011
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 »
Posted by Joe Cirincione on July 15, 2011
Congress just took a small but important bipartisan step to make America safer. Read more »
Posted by Joe Cirincione on July 14, 2011
Today Leon Panetta begins his term as Secretary of Defense.  One of his first tasks will be reigning in a Pentagon budget that has more than doubled in the last decade (the Department's fiscal year 2012 budget request is $671 billion). Read more »
Posted by Joe Cirincione on July 1, 2011
Over the past three weeks, members of Congress have been wielding the power of the purse. Happily for many of us, deliberations raised concerns about fiscal oversight of the nuclear weapons budget. Read more »
Posted by admin on June 22, 2011
For over sixty years, the United States has maintained a large and costly nuclear arsenal, composed of heavy bombers, submarine-launched missiles, and intercontinental missiles. Perhaps it's time for a change. Of course, so long as nuclear weapons exist in the world, the U.S. must maintain a credible and reliable deterrent to adversaries, while guaranteeing security to U.S. allies. Read more »
Posted by Rizwan Ladha on June 20, 2011
January 17th, 2011 will mark the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower’s famous farewell address in which he warned against the perils of the military-industrial complex. Today the New America Foundation, a Ploughshares grantee, hosted a panel discussion on this topic to mark the release of William D. Read more »
Posted by Reid Pauly on January 11, 2011
British Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to cut military personnel and hardware in an effort to reconfigure a military that he called "overstretched, underequipped and ill-prepared" to meet the unconventional warfare challenges of the future. Read more »
Posted by Kelly Bronk on October 20, 2010