Miguel Afonso Caetano<p>"US agencies responsible for preventing the global proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and building security capacity around the world are facing deep cuts, perhaps total abolition, as the Trump administration continues its assault on any and all spending going overseas.</p><p>According to a draft working paper provided to WIRED, the Department of Defense is asking all its agencies and services that conduct “security cooperation” programs to consider the impact if the Pentagon were to “realign” its funding. The authors of the paper warn the cuts could hobble the fight against organized crime in South America, impair the battle against the Islamic State, increase the likelihood of a rogue state producing and using chemical weapons, and defund pandemic surveillance measures.</p><p>The working paper is in response to a request for information from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, asking agencies to assess the consequences of four levels of staff reduction—25 percent, 50 percent, and 75 percent cuts, or outright abolition."</p><p><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/pentagon-cuts-nukes-chemical-weapons-wmd/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">wired.com/story/pentagon-cuts-</span><span class="invisible">nukes-chemical-weapons-wmd/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/USA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>USA</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Pentagon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pentagon</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/WMD" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WMD</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/DoD" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DoD</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/ChemicalWeapons" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ChemicalWeapons</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/NuclearWeapons" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NuclearWeapons</span></a></p>