arms race

Reigniting a Nuclear Arms Race is the Wrong Take-Home from Ukraine

by David P. Barash

A simplistic assumption of nuclear deterrence – that having nuclear weapons protects a nation against aggression – has frequently failed in practice. The Ukraine invasion should be a call to rethink deterrence and move toward abolishing nuclear weapons. 

How China's Nuclear Arms Buildup Will Make a Tripolar World, and What it Means for Peace

by Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr.

"There is nothing the United States can do to prevent China from joining it and Russia as the world’s top nuclear powers, but there are things that U.S. strategists and defense planners can do to mitigate the consequences."

Why Is Pentagon Spending Rising When "We Can't Afford" Everything Else?

by Lawrence Wittner

The self-interest of politicians and defense contractors, not popular demand or military necessity, is driving a new US military buildup that continues unabated even as other vital national priorities go begging. 

How About a Peace Race Instead of an Arms Race?

by Lawrence Wittner

On September 25, 1961, dismayed by the Soviet Union’s recent revival of nuclear weapons testing, John F. Kennedy used the occasion of his address to the United Nations to challenge the Russians “not to an arms race, but to a peace race.” 

Michael Klare: The Cold War Redux?

Michael Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, a TomDispatch regular, and the author, most recently, of The Race for What’s Left, now published in paperback by Picador. A documentary movie based on his book Blood and Oil can be previewed and ordered at www.bloodandoilmovie.com. You can follow Klare on Facebook by clicking here.Did Washington just give Israel the green light for a future attack on Iran via an arms deal? Did Russia just signal its further support for Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime via an arms deal? Are the Russians, the Chinese, and the Americans all heightening regional tensions in Asia via arms deals? Is it possible that we’re witnessing the beginnings of a new Cold War in two key regions of the planet -- and that the harbingers of this unnerving development are arms deals?