The New Arms Race

Nuclear weapons do nothing to protect us from 21st century threats. Yet the US government is planning to spend over $2 trillion during the next 30 years to rebuild its arsenal – plans that could push Russia, China and other countries to build even more nuclear weapons. In short, the world is on the brink of a new nuclear arms race that will only accelerate if current plans stay on track. 

Every dollar spent on re-building our arsenal is a dollar less for our true defense needs. We need to end wasteful nuclear programs and to realign our spending priorities with today’s threats.

Latest News and Analysis on the New Nuclear Arms Race

  • The Politics of Pentagon Spending: Can the US Military Budget Be Cut?

    Three weeks after the House voted against her amendment to the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act, Representative Barbara Lee (D-California) couldn’t help but evince a bit of residual exasperation. “It was so modest,” she said in an interview with national security podcast, Press The...

    August 12, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • The Outlook for Avoiding Catastrophe

    On the 75th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Ploughshares Fund today released a new report calling on the next US president to stop the new nuclear arms race between the United States and Russia. The report assesses that the superpowers have allowed the robust arms control...

    August 5, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • How Donald Trump's Nuclear Policy is Raising Old Debates over Nuclear Control

    Former New York Times editorial board member and longtime foreign policy reporter Carol Giacomo says President Donald Trump has forced Americans to grapple with the nuclear responsibility the country has accorded to every chief executive since Harry Truman. “When I began covering the nuclear...

    July 30, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Reverting Back to 'Cold War' Thinking: The Real Nuclear Danger Everyone Is Missing

    American policymakers “have reverted back to Cold War thinking” on US nuclear weapons, argues former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry in his new book with Ploughshares Fund’s Tom Collina, “...

    July 9, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • The Button

    Get started on your summer reading! You can now order a new book from former Secretary of Defense and Stanford professor of international relations William Perry and Ploughshares Fund policy director Tom Collina. The Button is a fascinating narrative of our living nuclear history—one in which...

    May 8, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Masks Over Missiles: New Rules for Pentagon Funding

    Representative Ro Khanna (D.-CA) recently laid down some new rules for the Pentagon budget: Fund public health over weapons; freeze defense programs at current levels; resist Senate pressure to cave on House priorities; and develop a “modern, expansive definition of national security that...

    May 4, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Why America Needs to Rethink Its National Security Priorities

    The leaders of the House Armed Services Committee just announced that they are postponing the scheduled markup of the National Defense Authorization Act to “a later time.” Good. It gives policymakers time to rethink their assumptions about what constitutes national security and how much money...

    April 8, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Letter from Akshai Vikram, Roger L. Hale Fellow

    Coming to Ploughshares Fund last September, I underestimated just how tumultuous the ensuing months would be. Surely, nothing could be more raucous than my time at the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election cycle. Yet I quickly realized that was not to be the case. My first week...

    March 11, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund
  • Exploding Budgets

    Bill Hartung, the director of the arms and security project at the Center for International Policy, did not mince words when asked about the Trump administration’s new nuclear budget. “It’s an outrage,” he said. “It’s the only thing that’s going up dramatically in the entire budget. Even other...

    February 14, 2020 - By Zack Brown
  • Event: The Tragedy of American Nuclear Policy

    We're delighted to announce that Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares Fund president, will be speaking at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) on Tuesday, March 3 from 3:30-5:00pm. This event is free and open to the public, and we would be honored to have you join us...

    February 12, 2020 - By Ploughshares Fund