People of World Influence: Joseph Cirincione Fund President Battles Cynicism To Rid World of Nuclear Weapons by John Shaw Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, is convinced that he and his fellow advocates for a world without nuclear weapons are approaching a modern-day Battle of Agincourt. Like the outmanned English troops that confronted and ultimately beat a formidable French army on St. Crispin’s Day in 1415 during the Hundred Years’ War, the anti-nuclear weapons movement faces formidable, even daunting, odds. But Cirincione believes the vision of a nuke-free world is no longer seen as a fanciful, peace-loving dream, but a tangible, reasonable policy goal. And he believes the movement has the right historical vision, key support from respected members of the American and global foreign policy establishment, and a charismatic new leader, President Barack Obama, who supports their cause. “There is a confluence of historical currents that are creating a powerful movement — and moment — for change,” he said in an interview with The Washington Diplomat. “There’s a new generation of global leaders who are less tied to the nuclear policies of the past and are more open to strategies for the future. There’s a recognition of the failure of past nuclear policies. Perhaps more importantly, there is a growing movement of civil society from all political persuasions that is providing leadership for a vision of a world without nuclear weapons.” The nuclear weapons debate, Cirincione argues, is reaching a critical juncture, with important decisions to be made this year by Obama, Congress and leaders in other nations such as Russia on major nuclear initiatives — namely a successor pact to the U.S.-Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and American ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, as well as the U.N. Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in 2010. “These kinds of policy opportunities don’t come along often and they don’t last long. The window is now open, but it will soon close. I think we can fundamentally change U.S. nuclear policy and in doing so, change the world. But it won’t be easy,” Cirincione said. “The next 12 months are absolutely crucial. This is why at Ploughshares we are throwing everything we have into this battle. This is the time for the Henry V speech. This is the time to throw everything into the breach. Whatever you’ve got, come with it.” And the Ploughshares Fund has been throwing its weight behind efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons for more than 25 years now. Created in 1981 by San Francisco philanthropist and activist Sally Lilienthal, the Ploughshares Fund is the largest grant-making foundation in the United States dedicated exclusively to security and peace funding. It supports people and institutions with the best ideas for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and building stability in regions where nuclear weapons pose a threat to peace. For example, an early grant by Ploughshares enabled scientists at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Soviet Academy of Sciences to demonstrate that a nuclear test ban could be verified, removing an important hurdle to a test ban treaty. The fund was also one of the first and most dependable supporters of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Cirincione joined the Ploughshares Fund as president in March 2008. A native of Connecticut, Cirincione studied as an undergraduate at Boston College and then took a job as a community organizer working at low-income housing projects. Deciding to shift his focus to international affairs, he attended graduate school at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. After completing his graduate studies, he worked for nine years on the staff of the House Armed Services and the House Government Operations committees, specializing in national security and nuclear policy issues. “This is where I learned everything I know about nuclear weapons,” Cirincione said. He later worked on nuclear and security issues for three prestigious Washington think tanks: the Henry L. Stimson Center, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Center for American Progress. Over the years, Cirincione has published extensively on nuclear issues. He is the author of “Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons” in 2007 and was the lead editor of the 2002 and 2005 editions of the standard reference on weapons of mass destruction, “Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats.” Since joining the Ploughshares Fund, Cirincione has sought to intensify the group’s commitment to eliminating nuclear weapons through an aggressive strategy that combines high-level advocacy, expanded and strategic grant making, and its own policy expertise. “We’re uniquely positioned to have a real policy impact on what I see as one of the most crucial questions of our generation. We have a new, more focused strategy that is dedicated to making fundamental changes in U.S. nuclear policy in the next two years,” he said. And the time for those changes may be right. Growing support in the United States and across the world to sharply reduce, and then ultimately eliminate, nuclear weapons is driven by several forces, according to Cirincione. “First, the nuclear problem is getting worse. The nuclear threat is increasing. Things are getting worse,” he argues, noting that although total nuclear weapons in the world are down sharply from their Cold War peak of about 65,000 to 23,000, several nations with these weapons are unstable and volatile, such as Pakistan and North Korea. Additionally, nuclear materials continue to be stored in less than secure places in various countries, including Russia. And a number of nations are moving ahead with civilian nuclear programs, which can be transformed into the capability to make weapons. Second, Cirincione believes the Bush administration’s approach focusing on regime change rather than on nuclear security has been proven to be a failure, so there is broad agreement that a new strategy is necessary. “You can’t just play nuclear whack-a-mole and knock these guys off one at a time,” Cirincione lamented. “The Bush administration tried that and it made things worse, not better. The threat increased over the last eight years, not decreased.” Third, Cirincione points out that respected members of the American security establishment have publicly and aggressively embraced the vision of a world without nuclear weapons. He largely credits this shift to an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in January 2007 — by former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn — that captured the attention of world leaders when it supported the eradication of nuclear weapons. 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