Nuclear Zero

  • In an upcoming decision, the Obama administration is poised to pare down the U.S. nuclear arsenal. This move, which the president is likely to discuss in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, has the support of many experts who note it’s about time the U.S. moved away from Cold War weapons and invested in a 21st century security strategy that will make us more secure.

    February 11, 2013 - By Alyssa Demus
  • With a new year come exciting opportunities to expand your knowledge of nuclear issues. Since you have probably read through last year’s list (well done!) and our summer list (kudos!), we’re providing you with a brand new list to satisfy your reading resolution for 2013. Covering diverse topics from Hiroshima manga (Japanese graphic novels) to the development of the bomb in Pakistan there is something to satisfy the nuclear wonk in everyone.

    January 22, 2013 - By Jessica Sleight
  • 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.

    January 15, 2013 - By Joe Cirincione
  • 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
  • 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.

    December 5, 2012 - By Joe Cirincione
  • Is it illogical to think of a world without nuclear weapons?  Must we accept the world as it is, with nuclear weapons, as many in the high priesthood of strategic policy insist?  That was a broad reaction to the effort to get rid of them that Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev made at the Reykjavik Summit 26 years ago in what George Shultz has called “the highest stakes poker game ever played.”  And I still hear it frequently today.

    November 16, 2012 - By admin
  • Things have changed since 1962. Hippies have given way to hipsters, cellphones give you the news faster than the local news team can, only two Beatles are left, and the Soviet Union doesn’t even exist anymore. The Cold War atmosphere has evaporated and the risk of all-out nuclear war has dramatically decreased. However, a similar type of nuclear crisis that happened in Cuba in 1962 unfortunately could still happen today.

    October 25, 2012 - By Jessica Sleight
  • In August 1945, an estimated 185,000 people lost their lives as a result of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which represent the first and only nuclear attacks on earth. We are working to ensure they are also the last.

    August 29, 2012 - By admin
  • In 1945, Ploughshares Fund supporter Reid Dennis was sent by the Navy to Japan. While there he visited both Hiroshima and Nagasaki shortly after their bombing. Reid has kindly shared his remembrances of that visit with us, below. 

    August 9, 2012 - By admin