Last week the White House convened a virtual Leaders Summit on Climate with forty leaders from the world's largest economies presenting their plans to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Now that the dust has settled, what should we make of the new commitments announced at the summit? 

The world spent almost $2 trillion on militaries in 2020, according to the latest data on global military expenditures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). That's a military spending increase of 2.6 per cent in real terms since 2019, even as global gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 4.4...

With his Pentagon budget proposal last week, President Biden made clear his intention to continue in the footsteps of President Trump. The proposal called for an increase in Pentagon and war spending from $740 billion fiscal year 2021 to $753 billion in fiscal year 2022. 

Today, President Joe Biden unveiled his administration's FY 2022 “skinny budget” request. While not a full breakdown, the “skinny budget” offers a critical glimpse at topline discretionary budget spending and speaks volumes about the administration's priorities. At $753 billion, Biden's requested Pentagon budget increase continues the dangerous and short-sighted path...

Progressives have called for an immediate ten percent Pentagon spending reduction, to be followed by greater reductions. That would take spending closer to where it was under President Obama. We'll soon find out whether President Biden will stick with the Trump increases, build on them, or begin to tear them down.

We’ve had 18 years to learn that the costs of war are just too high. We must end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the next time our leaders inevitably argue for the necessity of war, it’s up to us to resist.  

The Biden administration is bending rules to drop bombs but not raise wages. That’s a mistake.

It’s time for a different foreign policy that respects the rule of law, respects the sovereignty of other nations, and respects human life in all nations.

The United States' reentry to the Paris Climate Agreement is critical, but far from the sufficient. The path to a livable future requires new internationalism rooted in global cooperation, resource sharing, and solidarity.

Biden’s order rolling back for-profit prisons is a good first step. Next we need to end for-profit immigration detention.