PRESS ROOM

Having served as the director of the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute in the past, William Hartung is the current director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. In addition, he has worked as a speechwriter, policy analyst, and author, who has published several books on the critique of U.S. arms sales policies. He has been featured on Huffington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and more... READ MORE »

Not surprisingly, since Hollywood rakes in billions of dollars annually from the rest of the planet for entertaining us all, weekly news about its business successes and failures is a regular feature of our world. And, oh yes, then there’s that other business, the one that actually makes things that go boom in the night. I’m talking, of course, about the weapons trade... READ MORE »

There’s too much slush in the supplemental, as shown by the fourfold jump in spending per deployed servicemember... READ MORE »

Live from Mexico City, Laura Carlsen reports on teachers' strike in Oaxaca - from the protest's struggle against neoliberal labor and education policy changes that strip worker rights and ignore surging economic inequality, to the state's deadly response to this and other challenges to their economic agenda - and updates us on the political aftermath of the government killing of Honduran activist Berta Cáceres. Laura spoke to the Real News Network for their segment "Nine Killed in Police Crackdown on Oaxaca Teacher's Strike"... READ MORE »

The July 7 editorial “A final commitment in Afghanistan” viewed the war in Afghanistan primarily in military terms. The main reason the U.S.-backed Afghan government has been losing is the rampant corruption that undermines public support for the government and fuels the insurgency. Since 2001, the United States has spent more than $110 billion on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, which, in current dollars, is more than we spent on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. This amount does not include the hundreds of billions the United States spent on the war in Afghanistan itself... READ MORE »

This month’s White House visit by Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) underscores the growing influence of the Saudi defense minister, who is the driving force behind the kingdom’s catastrophic war in Yemen. The Obama administration has provided crucial support for the Saudi campaign in Yemen, including arms, intelligence, and aerial refueling of Saudi aircraft... READ MORE »

The world may be in turmoil, but the American arms industry is cashing in... READ MORE »

When President Obama visits Saudi Arabia this week for a meeting with representatives from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, he should avoid doing what he did at Camp David last May, the last time he met with them: promise more arms sales. Since Mr. Obama hosted that meeting, the United States has offered over $33 billion in weaponry to its Persian Gulf allies, with the bulk of it going to Saudi Arabia. The results have been deadly... READ MORE »

The war against environmentalists and the indigenous people of Honduras continues. Last week, the body of Lesbia Yaneth Urquía was discovered in a garbage dump... READ MORE »

There are many worrisome aspects of President Obama’s legacy in international security, including the generally mediocre appointments in the field of national security; the failure to appreciate the humanitarian crisis in Syria; the “pivot” to China that communicated a policy of “containment” to Beijing; the inability to close Guantanamo; the deportation of more immigrants than any other American president; the pursuit of America’s longest war in Afghanistan for another eight years; the expansion of military aid to Israel; the weakening of the role of the Inspector General in the field of national security, the misuse of the Espionage Act of 1917, and now the policy of militarism that he pursued last week in Warsaw at the NATO summit... READ MORE »

There is a new poster child for the U.S. government’s double standard in dealing with violations of public policy and public trust—former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who will receive no punishment for her wanton disregard of U.S. laws and national security. Clinton merely received a blistering rebuke from FBI director James Comey, who charged her with “extremely careless” behavior in using multiple private email servers to send and received classified information as well as using her personal cellphone in dealing with sensitive materials while traveling outside the United States... READ MORE »

When the JLENS air surveillance blimp cut loose from its moorings in Maryland and crashed in central Pennsylvania last fall, it raised serious questions about the future of the $2.7 billion program. The system is meant to detect cruise missiles, drones, and other low flying aircraft before they can attack the nation’s capital. But as David Willman noted in a piece in the Los Angeles Times last September, “Seventeen years after its birth, JLENS is a stark example of what defense specialists call a ‘zombie’ program: costly, ineffectual and seemingly impossible to kill.”... READ MORE »