By Daniel Wirls, Professor of Politics, UC Santa Cruz The Biden National Defense budget presented to Congress in late January 2021 is a modest increase from the previous year but among the highest in the last 70 years in constant dollars adjusted for inflation – despite the effective end to the forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is higher […]
Fact Sheet: Nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles
Updated June 2024 Despite the Biden administration’s previous decision not to pursue the development of a new nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) and its associated warhead, the W80-4 ALT, due to cost and strategic considerations, Congress provided funding for the continuation of the SLCM-N program in the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act. In FY23 budget […]
3 questions experts say need to be asked about pandemic’s origin
Gregory Koblentz, a member of the Center’s Science Working Group, was quoted in a Roll Call article about the need for more Congressional scrutiny into experiments, known as “gain of function” research, that change pathogens to make them more infectious or dangerous. “Congress only pays attention to stuff when things go wrong,” said Gregory Koblentz, […]
Front and Center: June 19, 2021
THANKFUL TO CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH TODAY The Center is thankful to President Joe Biden and a bipartisan majority in Congress for finally declaring today, Juneteenth, a federal holiday. Although there has been progress in the 156 years since the last enslaved Americans were freed, there is still much to do for all Americans to share equally […]
Op-ed: Next step in arms control: Putin must be pragmatic
Senior Policy Director John Erath wrote a short reflection on the June 16 Biden-Putin Summit for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “The June 16 Geneva Summit produced little mention of arms control, and that is probably a positive sign. Arms control agreements, at least good ones, do not appear overnight. They are products of […]
