What is Pugwash?
An international movement of scientists
concerned about the social impact of science
and seeking ways to prevent its misuse.
What are its main
concerns?
• reducing the danger of armed conflict
• seeking cooperative solutions to
global problems
What is its origin?
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto
1955
The Russell-Einstein
Manifesto 1955
Called on scientists to meet to find
ways to avert the threat to civilization
created by the advent of thermonuclear
weapons.
But why Pugwash?
Pugwash, Nova Scotia
Thinkers’ Lodge 2003
What does Pugwash do?
• Organizes meetings of scientists and
scholars from all over the world on specific
issues (over 300 to date)
• Aim is to influence
– government policies, and
– public thinking
on topical problems of global security.
Rules of procedure –
very important
• Meeting in private, as individuals
representing only themselves, they are
able to reach conclusions which have
often paved the way to governmental
agreements and international treaties.
• No published proceedings, and no
attribution of statements
• Summary reports are published in the
Pugwash Newsletter
A range of other activities
• Pugwash also runs projects, e.g.
– A Nuclear-Weapon-Free World
– Conversion of Military R&D
– Education for World Citizenship
– Nuclear power
– …….
• These often culminate in books.
Current programme areas
• Nuclear weapons
• Chemical and biological weapons
• Regional conflict and global security
– South Asia
– East Asia
– Middle East
• Space security
• Science and society
Some recent workshops
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No first use of nuclear weapons
Security of the Russian nuclear complex
Science, ethics and society (series)
The security aspects of HIV/AIDS
WMD in the Middle East
Economic inequities in Latin America
Implementation of the CWC and BWC
Civil-Military relations in the North Caucuses
Security architecture in the Horn of Africa
Some Pugwash Achievements
• Kept lines of communication open during Cold
War.
• Critical influence on Arms Control:
– Helped lay foundations for, e.g.
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Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 1968
Antiballistic Missile Treaty 1972
The Partial Test Ban Treaty
Biological Weapons Convention
Chemical Weapons Convention
• First links between Kissinger and North
Vietnamese in the Vietnam War
• Informal channels in the Arab-Israeli, Korean
and Kashmir conflicts
The British Pugwash Group
Seminars and public meetings on
UK and international topics
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Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons
Britain and unconventional terrorism
The future of the NPT
NATO’s Science for Peace programme
Weapons technology and scientific ethics
(British Association 2004)
• Conversion of Russia’s closed nuclear
cities to civilian activities
Research projects
• UK Nuclear Weapons Policy
– Does Britain need nuclear weapons? (1995)
– An end to UK Nuclear Weapons (2002)
• The potential role of Aldermaston in
international verification of compliance
with disarmament agreements
• And…
The WMD Awareness Programme
• Aims to:
– raise British public awareness of the grave
dangers of present nuclear weapons policies;
– shift public perception towards the merits of
approaches to both global and national
security that resolve conflict constructively
through ‘dialogue not destruction’
A collaboration between 14 NGOs
• Abolition 2000 UK
• Acronym Institute
• Atomic Mirror
• BASIC
• British Pugwash
Group
• CND
• Greenpeace UK
• Medact
• Movement for the
Abolition of War
• Oxford Research
Group
• Pax Christi
• Quaker Peace and
Social Witness
• World Court Project
• Student/Young
Pugwash
How the project operates
• Public Education Programme
focussing on events
(Gorbachev Launch; Hay-onWye Festival, Glastonbury, …)
How the project operates
• Public Education Programme focussing on
events (Gorbachev Launch; Hay-on-Wye
Festival, Glastonbury, …)
• Working with the media (e.g. Op. Eds,
Bremner Bird and Fortune show, …)
• Engagement with Parliamentarians
• Maintain an informative and reliable
website (www.comeclean.org.uk)
• Schools curriculum development
Student/Young Pugwash
• An independent entity with its own national
and international organisation
• Groups in many countries
• Runs its own projects and meetings
– Project on an ethical code for scientists
• Organises its own internatonal conference
• Representatives participate in Pugwash
annual conferences
If you are interested…
• Pugwash website www.pugwash.org
• British Pugwash Group www.pugwash.org/uk
– or see JLF
• Student/Young Pugwash
www.student-pugwash.org
– Email [email protected]
Next Pugwash meeting:
Friday 7 April 17.00
Chadwick Lecture Theatre, UCL
Prof. Keith Barnham, IC
Nuclear Energy and Nuclear
Weapon Proliferation
Ruth Adams and Joseph Rotblat
at Thinker’s Lodge, July 2003