The Pentagon’s Budget Follies Come at a High Price
by Julia Gledhill and William D. Hartung The White House released its budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025 on March 11th, and the news was depressingly familiar: $895 billion for the Pentagon…
William D Hartung
War Is Bad for You — And the Economy
Joe Biden wants you to believe that spending money on weapons is good for the economy. That tired old myth — regularly repeated by the political leaders of both parties…
The Military-Industrial Complex Is the Winner (Not You)
2023 was a year marked by devastating conflicts from Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine to Hamas’s horrific terror attacks on Israel, from that country’s indiscriminate mass slaughter in Gaza to a devastating civil war in Sudan. And there’s…
Good Times for the Military-Industrial Complex
The New York Times headline said it all: “Middle East War Adds to Surge in International Arms Sales.” The conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and beyond may be causing immense and unconscionable human suffering, but…
Will the Pentagon’s Techno-Fantasies Pave the Way for War with China?
On August 28th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks chose the occasion of a three-day conference organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the arms industry’s biggest trade group,…
The Profiteers of Armageddon-Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Nuclear-Industrial Complex
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months, you’re undoubtedly aware that award-winning director Christopher Nolan has released a new film about Robert Oppenheimer, known as the “father…
Throwing More Money at the Pentagon
by William D. Hartung and Julia Gledhill On June 3rd, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that lifted the government’s debt ceiling and capped some categories of government spending. The big winner was —…
The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell
On March 13th, the Pentagon rolled out its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The results were — or at least should have been — stunning, even by the standards…
Going Down the Military Drain
Late last month, President Biden signed a bill that clears the way for $858 billion in Pentagon spending and nuclear weapons work at the Department of Energy in 2023. That’s far more than Washington…
A Hall of Shame of U.S. Weapons Sales
Here’s a seldom commented-upon reality of this century and this moment: the United States remains the number-one arms-exporting nation on the planet. Between 2017 and 2021, it grabbed 39% of the total…
Contractors Cash in as Congress Adds Billions to the Pentagon Budget
by Julia Gledhill & William D. Hartung Congress has spoken when it comes to next year’s Pentagon budget and the results, if they weren’t so in line with past practices,…
America’s $1.4 Trillion “National Security” Budget Makes Us Ever Less Safe
This March, when the Biden administration presented a staggering $813 billion proposal for “national defense,” it was hard to imagine a budget that could go significantly higher or be more generous to…
Ukraine and the Profits of War
by William D. Hartung and Julia Gledhill The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought immense suffering to the people of that land, while sparking calls for increased military spending in…
Washington Should Think Twice Before Launching a New Cold War
by William D. Hartung, Taylor Giorno and Nick Cleveland-Stout A growing chorus of pundits and policymakers has suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks the beginning of a new Cold War. If so,…
What a Waste! $778 Billion for the Pentagon and Still Counting
2021 was another banner year for the military-industrial complex, as Congress signed off on a near-record $778 billion in spending for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear warheads at the Department…
How Corporations Won the War on Terror
The costs and consequences of America’s twenty-first-century wars have by now been well-documented — a staggering $8 trillion in expenditures and more than 380,000 civilian deaths, as calculated by Brown University’s Costs…
America Dominant Again (in Arms Sales)
When it comes to trade in the tools of death and destruction, no one tops the United States of America. In April of this year, the Stockholm International Peace Research…
Shrinking the Pentagon
Co-Written by William D. Hartung and Mandy Smithberger Will the Biden Administration Dare Cut Military Spending? Now that Joe Biden is slated to take office as the 46th president of the United…
How to Stuff the Middle East With Weaponry
The United States has the dubious distinction of being the world’s leading arms dealer. It dominates the global trade in a historic fashion and nowhere is that domination more complete than in…
Defunding America’s Wars at Home and Abroad
Think of it as a war system that’s been coming home for years. The murder of George Floyd has finally shone a spotlight on the need to defund local police…
Will Trump Ride Pentagon Spending to Reelection?
Donald Trump likes to posture as a tough guy and part of that tough-guy persona involves bragging about how much he’s spent on the U.S. military. This tendency was on…
America’s Arms Sales Addiction
The 50-Year History of U.S. Dominance of the Middle Eastern Arms Trade It’s no secret that Donald Trump is one of the most aggressive arms salesmen in history. How…
A Trillion-Dollar Future Pentagon Budget?
Co-Written by William D. Hartung and Mandy Smithberger For the Pentagon, happy days are here again (if they ever left). With a budget totaling more than $1.4 trillion for the next two…
The Military-Industrial Complex on Steroids
When, in his farewell address in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the “unwarranted influence” wielded by the “military-industrial complex,” he could never have dreamed of an…
Making Sense of the $1.25 Trillion National Security State Budget
Co-Written By William D. Hartung and Mandy Smithberger In its latest budget request, the Trump administration is asking for a near-record $750 billion for the Pentagon and related defense activities, an astonishing figure by…
Weapons For Anyone: Donald Trump and the Art of the Arms Deal
It’s one of those stories of the century that somehow never gets treated that way. For an astounding 25 of the past 26 years, the United States has been theleading…
Massive Overkill : Brought To You By The Nuclear-Industrial Complex
[This piece has been updated and adapted from William D. Hartung’s “Nuclear Politics” in Sleepwalking to Armageddon: The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation, edited by Helen Caldicott and just published by the New…
There’s No Business Like The Arms Business
When American firms dominate a global market worth more than $70 billion a year, you’d expect to hear about it. Not so with the global arms trade. It’s good for…
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