Nuclear Brinkmanship: The Profiteers of Doomsday
A senior State Department figure, Under Secretary of State Bonnie Jenkins, has apparently signaled that the United States is seriously considering a return to underground nuclear weapons testing. This casual pronouncement, delivered with all the gravitas of a quarterly earnings report, suggests a significant rollback of decades of non-proliferation policy, largely ignored by mainstream outlets
beyond a perfunctory mention. It's a move that conveniently bypasses the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which the U.S. has signed but never ratified, allowing for plausible deniability while dangling the threat of escalation. What the headline makers omit is the financial engine revving this apparent policy shift. Consider the beneficiaries: major defense contractors such as
Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon, whose stock prices invariably tick upwards with every whisper of heightened global tension. These corporations pour millions into lobbying efforts annually. For example, Lockheed Martin alone spent over $14.5 million on lobbying in 2023, while also making significant campaign contributions to key political figures, including those in the very departments
shaping this policy. The incentive is remarkably straightforward: new tests require new weapons, new maintenance, and colossal new contracts, all paid for by the public purse. This isn't merely about national security; it's a predictable economic cycle. One might recall the early 2000s, when the push for a "missile defense shield"—a program ultimately costing hundreds of billions and largely