Ploughshares Fund Welcomes President Obama’s Call to Action on Nuclear Weapons Security

San Francisco, CA – Ploughshares Fund leaders Joe Cirincione and Philip Yun applaud President Barack Obama’s bold new call to action for a 21st century nuclear security policy. The President’s announcement in Berlin has finally replaced the nuclear guidance issued in 2002 by President George W. Bush with new policies that will reduce the roles, numbers and alert rates of nuclear weapons in US national security strategy. “As long as nuclear weapon exist,” said Obama, “we are not truly safe.”

“It is difficult to imagine a military mission that requires even one nuclear weapon; the use of ten is unthinkable; yet we have over 7,000 in our arsenal,” said Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione. “President Obama detailed a smart security strategy to reduce US and Russian nuclear weapons, secure all global stocks of weapons material and prevent new nuclear nations. These mutually reinforcing steps will make us safer, preserve American leadership and help avert nuclear disaster.”

“Our military leaders and experts on both sides of the aisle have affirmed that we can reasonably scaleback our nuclear arsenal to address any possible threat,” said Ploughshares Fund Executive Director Philip Yun. “The thousands of weapons remaining in the United States are a Cold War hangover. We are on track to spend over $640 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs over the next ten years, money that could instead be spent on programs that address 21st century threats.”