Syria

  • Some very good news has come from a very bad part of the world today. Syria’s operational chemical weapons arsenal is no more. Officials in the Syrian port of Latakia loaded the very last shipment of the declared stockpile onto a Danish freighter and sent them off for destruction at sea.

    June 23, 2014 - By admin
  • Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione went live on KCBS News San Francisco to commend the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international chemical weapons watchdog that has played a huge part in helping to eliminate Syria&rsquo

    October 11, 2013 - By Amanda Waldron
  • As the world explores the feasibility of Russia's proposal to remove chemical weapons from Syria, Ploughshares Fund experts are being called upon by the media to explain what such an effort would...

    September 12, 2013 - By admin
  • A surprise proposal by Russia offered a solution to the crisis in Syria that would also achieve a longstanding goal of the non-proliferation community: the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons program. The Russian proposal would move all Syrian chemical weapons into international custody for safe keeping and eventual dismantlement. It’s a sound policy idea – the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has roughly two decades of experience in verifying deals just like this. And so far, political responses seem to be encouraging. Below is a summary of responses to the proposal.*

    September 9, 2013 - By admin
  • As talk of strikes on Syria continues, the media has started to examine the impact military action in Syria might have on the United States foreign policy goals, most notably on

    September 3, 2013 - By admin
  • The debate over Syria’s possible use of chemical weapons has been dominating the headlines. Were deadly nerve agents used? If so by whom? Was the use intentional? These questions are important since President Obama has intimated that, if confirmed, the use of chemical weapons could change U.S. policy toward the Syrian civil war. The specifics of what the United States would do differently are unclear. What is clear, though, is that the use of chemical weapons characteristically changes the way we perceive the conflict. It is, as Obama stated, a “game changer.”

    May 10, 2013 - By Paul Carroll
  • This year we saw a nearly 16% decrease in the number of nuclear weapons in the world. This is great progress but there is far more work for us to do.

    December 21, 2012 - By Peter Fedewa
  • With the real possibility of Syria’s use of chemical weapons and the security of their stockpiles in question, the comparison to a nuclear scenario is not hard to imagine.

    December 18, 2012 - By Jessica Sleight
  • Like many around the world, we're heartened to see the people of Syria and Libya stand up and take back their political rights from dictatorial regimes. As the two nations reach for democracy, however, we can't lose sight of the fact that the they've both been stockpiling weapons of mass destruction for years.

    September 1, 2011 - By admin