Dear Friend,

The nine nuclear-armed countries spent more than $10 billion more on their nuclear arsenals last year than the year before, as ICAN shows in “Surge: 2023 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending”. Between them, they pumped $91.4 billion into the nuclear arms race, or $2,898 per second.  

The biggest spender, also with the largest one-year increase, is the United States, which spent $51.5 billion, more than all other nuclear-armed countries combined. China expended $11.9 billion and Russia spent the third largest amount at $8.3 billion. The United Kingdom’s spending increased significantly for the second year in a row, to $8.1 billion.

The twenty corporations profiled in the report earned over $30 billion for nuclear weapons related work in 2023, about a third of overall nuclear weapons spending. These companies have $335 billion in contracts lined up, in some cases, until 2040 and spent more than $123 million buying influence through lobbyists and think tank contributions.

Take a closer look at the numbers and what they mean in this video explainer.

This report looks deeply at the ways that nuclear deterrence theories are used to justify a theft of resources from the public. It talks about what the governments spend, as well as who is encouraging them to make those decisions to build new and more destructive nuclear weapons.

We know there are billions of other things this money can pay for instead. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more about the different uses for this money as we gear up for a global week of action against global nuclear weapons spending. 

But for today, will you help us call out these 9 states and their horribly wasteful choices?  Please share the report or our explainer video far and wide across social media and your networks.

Thank you,

Susi Snyder and Alicia Sanders-Zakre
Co-authors of Surge: 2023 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)