Further investigation into the report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN— see Tuesday’s morning briefing) reveals valuable details on the involvement of the Military Industrial Complex in driving this deadly industry, both through providing financing and reaping profits through investments. As part of their efforts to “abolish” nuclear weapons, ICAN (a loose network of “several hundred” NGOs, founded in 2007) released a report May 30, “Untenable Investments: Nuclear Weapons Producers and their Financiers,” documenting companies which were involved. The companies are a small and familiar group.
There are 24 leading companies worldwide (says ICAN) involved in the production of weapons, with China and Russia each having one, India two and France four. Eleven of them are American, but the five largest producers—BAE Systems, Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman—consider themselves to be from both the UK and the US.
