I wrote this for Ploughshares Fund Board members to use when talking about Ploughshares Fund to prospective donors, a story to get them interested in learning more about the organization. This was written to have a six month shelf life in 2018. Other than the fact that the United States is taking tentative steps to rejoin, or renegotiate, the Iran nuclear deal, and the fact that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has entered into force, the story could largely be told today.
For over 37 years, through Ploughshares Fund, people like you have supported the most effective people and organizations in the world to reduce and eventually eliminate the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. These contributions allowed our grantees, partners and community to make significant progress in cutting risks and reducing nuclear weapons stockpiles since their peak in the 1980s, but enormous challenges remain. There are still nearly 15,000 nuclear weapons left on the planet; over 90% are in the US and Russia, with the remainder in China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.
Today, these nine nuclear weapons states are rebuilding their arsenals and developing new weapons. A new global, cascading nuclear arms race has begun. The chance of a nuclear war, especially through accident or miscalculation, is higher than it has been since the end of the Cold War.
At the same time, modern climate models suggest the effects of “nuclear winter” would likely be worse than previously estimated. In a regional war between India and Pakistan, for example, modern climate models suggest the incineration of cities by even 100 weapons would cause enough soot to be lofted into the atmosphere to create climate disruption that could lead to the starvation of a billion people.
In the midst of these horrible possibilities, Ploughshares Fund is focusing on three problems:
- The US is on track to spend $1.7 trillion on a new generation of nuclear weapons over the next 30 years, fueling a global nuclear arms race, creating strategic instability, and increasing the risk of nuclear war by accident or miscalculation. Ploughshares Fund is working to limit US spending in specific areas, as a step towards deeper arms reductions and their eventual elimination.
- North Korea has recently become the world’s newest nuclear-weapons state, showing that in the 21st century even one of the poorest countries in the world can build a nuclear arsenal, despite threats of war, international condemnation, and sanctions. Ploughshares Fund is supporting smart, credible diplomacy as a part of the solution to this complex problem.
- Iran, currently subject to a peaceful international agreement blocking its pathways to nuclear weapons, is at risk of leaving the agreement due to violation of the agreement by the United States. In the wake of its own violation, a US pressure campaign is increasing the risk of nuclear proliferation and of another war, further destabilizing the Middle East. Ploughshares Fund is standing against the slide to war as a way of maintaining the possibility that the United States could return to multilateral diplomacy to stop an arms race in the Middle East.
Together, our grantees, partners and community are making progress against these threats every day.
Most people have an inherent desire to make the world a better place, and nuclear weapons deserve their full attention. Ploughshares Fund is the nation’s largest foundation dedicated exclusively to reducing the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. Through Ploughshares Fund’s unique grant-making strategy, the sum of supporters’ donations is greater than its parts.
- We act as a hub of a diverse network of thought leaders, innovators and campaigners, such as the anti-nuclear weapons thought leader, 19th US Secretary of Defense William J. Perry; the innovative Global Zero, who recently created a blueprint for a politically realistic alternative US nuclear weapons policy; and campaigners such as Beyond the Bomb and Win Without War, organizations enlisting a new generation in the campaign work necessary to move toward a world free of the threat posed by nuclear weapons.
- Our own specialized team of media savvy experts and advocates brings widespread attention to nuclear issues, influencing the national narrative on nuclear policy by appearing in newspapers such as The New York Times and Washington Post and on TV networks such as NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.
- Finally, we take calculated risks, providing seed funding to export unchartered strategies for reducing nuclear threats. One example is a grant made to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. That grant helped them get the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the “nuclear ban treaty,” adopted by the United Nations. They won a Nobel Peace Prize for that work and they are not stopping, resulting today in a majority of countries in the world having signed the treaty, thereby stigmatizing nuclear weapons and catalyzing change.
We couldn’t do it without our supporters. Every dollar given to Ploughshares Fund goes directly to reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons, and preventing conflicts that could lead to their use, with nothing subtracted for fundraising or administrative costs.
By making a gift to Ploughshares Fund, people can help eliminate one of the greatest risks to our planet, and create a more secure world, free of nuclear weapons, for future generations. Join Ploughshares Fund, and together we will remain committed to work towards our shared vision of a world free of the threat posed by nuclear weapons, until that vision becomes a concrete reality.
