By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - The world's nuclear weapons industry is being funded - and kept alive - by more than 300 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers in 30 countries, according to a new study.
And these institutions have substantial investments in nuclear arms producers.
Released by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 180-page study says that nuclear-armed nations spend over US$100 billion each year assembling new warheads, modernizing old ones, and building ballistic missiles, bombers and submarines to launch them.
Much of this work, the report points out, is carried out by corporations such as BAE Systems and Babcock International in the UK, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in the United
States, Thales and Safran in France, and Larsen & Toubro in India.
"Financial institutions invest in these companies by providing loans and purchasing shares and bonds," says the report, described as the first of its kind.
Titled "Don't Bank on the Bomb: The Global Financing of Nuclear Weapons Producers", the study provides details of financial transactions with 20 companies heavily involved in the manufacture, maintenance and modernization of US, British, French and Indian nuclear forces.
