From 3–7 March 2025, members of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) have gathered for their third meeting since the agreement became law in 2021. About half the world’s countries have joined the treaty so far, pledging to never acquire nuclear weapons and to work for their abolition globally. During the first few days of the meeting, rich discussions transpired about both the geopolitical obstacles and hopeful opportunities for nuclear disarmament. Rising military spending and threats of “rearmament” create a grim context for this meeting, but TPNW states parties are well poised to articulate a collective alternative based on the logic of disarmament instead of the illogic of deterrence. As many speakers conveyed, courage and conviction are needed now more than ever.

An Unconscionable Surge in Spending

During the high-level opening session, Mexico expressed grave concern that several countries have recently announced their intention to reduce their contributions to official development aid while increasing their military spending. Given that the UN has warned that the world is already “woefully off track” to meet agreed development goals and that many countries are staring into a “financial abyss,” additional cuts to aid will further impoverish and endanger those who have long suffered the inequalities imposed by colonialism, imperialism, and extrication. Redirecting development aid to militarism will not only destroy efforts to meet development goals but will inevitably send the world crashing into more violence, more destruction, more poverty, suffering, death, and unrelenting injustice.

This is not theoretical. In the United States, the Trump regime is actively slashing and burning all international aid and social services, dismantling every agency and programme designed to provide for human well-being or survival both within the US and abroad. At the same time, the regime is supporting the allocation of billions of more dollars to militarism. While some media reported on claims of an eight per cent cut to the military budget, the “cuts” are actually a shifting of funds from “non-lethal” programmes to an “alarming military buildup at the border with Mexico, an absurd ​‘Iron Dome’ project, and accelerated militarization of the Indo-Pacific region.”

So far, nuclear weapons are not on the chopping block, regardless of random comments by the President. The military-industrial complex and its team of well-funded lobbyists are making sure that Elon Musk and the DOGE boys don’t come anywhere near their expensive, deadly toys. More broadly, believing anything a fascist says about wanting to reduce his capacity to wield massive violence is likely a fool’s errand.

Meanwhile, in response to mounting US hostility towards its former Western allies, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that European states “need more fiscal space to do a surge in defence spending,” arguing that “after a long time of underinvestment, it is now of utmost importance to step up the defence investment for a prolonged period of time.” On 4 March, she announced a plan to “rearm” Europe with the mobilisation of 800 billion EUR from states and private capital. Switzerland and the United Kingdom have already announced cuts to their development or aid budgets and their plans to redirect those funds into their militaries.

Amidst rising........

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