Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

Last updated

The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was founded in 1957 by Joseph Rotblat and Bertrand Russell in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, following the release of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto in 1955.

Contents

Rotblat and the Pugwash Conference jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts on nuclear disarmament. [1] [note 1] International Student/Young Pugwash groups have existed since founder Cyrus Eaton's death in 1979.

Origin of the Pugwash Conferences

Thinkers' Lodge, Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada; site of the first Pugwash conference in 1957 Thinkers' Lodge 04.jpg
Thinkers' Lodge, Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada; site of the first Pugwash conference in 1957

The Russell–Einstein Manifesto, released July 9, 1955, [2] [3] [4] called for a conference for scientists to assess the dangers of weapons of mass destruction (then only considered to be nuclear weapons). Cyrus Eaton, an industrialist and philanthropist, offered on July 13 to finance and host the conference in the town of his birth, Pugwash, Nova Scotia. This was not taken up at the time because a meeting was planned for India, at the invitation of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. With the outbreak of the Suez Crisis the Indian conference was postponed. Aristotle Onassis offered to finance a meeting in Monaco instead, but this was rejected. Eaton's former invitation was taken up.

The first conference was held at what became known as Thinkers' Lodge in July 1957 in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. [5] Twenty-two scientists attended the first conference:[ citation needed ]

Cyrus Eaton, Eric Burhop, Ruth Adams, Anne Kinder Jones, and Vladimir Pavlichenko also were present. Many others were unable to attend, including co-founder Bertrand Russell, for health reasons.[ citation needed ] From the Soviet Union, Mikhail Ilyich Bruk (Russian : Михаил Ильич Брук; 1923 Moscow - 2009 Jurmala) attended as an English-Russian technical translator. Later, Armand Hammer stated, "Mike's KGB." [6]

Organizational structure

Cyrus Eaton - financier of Pugwash Conferences Cyrus-Stephen-Eaton-picture.gif
Cyrus Eatonfinancier of Pugwash Conferences

Pugwash's "main objective is the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical and biological) and of war as a social institution to settle international disputes. To that extent, peaceful resolution of conflicts through dialogue and mutual understanding is an essential part of Pugwash activities, that is particularly relevant when and where nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction are deployed or could be used." [7]

"The various Pugwash activities (general conferences, workshops, study groups, consultations and special projects) provide a channel of communication between scientists, scholars, and individuals experienced in government, diplomacy, and the military for in-depth discussion and analysis of the problems and opportunities at the intersection of science and world affairs. To ensure a free and frank exchange of views, conducive to the emergence of original ideas and an effective communication between different or antagonistic governments, countries and groups, Pugwash meetings as a rule are held in private. This is the main modus operandi of Pugwash. In addition to influencing governments by the transmission of the results of these discussions and meetings, Pugwash also may seek to make an impact on the scientific community and on public opinion through the holding of special types of meetings and through its publications." [7]

Officers include the president and secretary-general. Formal governance is provided by the Pugwash Council, which serves for five years. There is also an executive committee that assists the secretary-general. Jayantha Dhanapala is the current president. Paolo Cotta-Ramusino is the current Secretary General.

The four Pugwash offices, in Rome (international secretariat), London, Geneva, and Washington D.C., provide support for Pugwash activities and serve as liaisons to the United Nations and other international organizations.

There are approximately fifty national Pugwash groups, organized as independent entities and often supported or administered by national academies of science.

The International Student/Young Pugwash groups works with, but are independent from, the international Pugwash group.

Contributions to international security

Pugwash encounter and tour held at the National Accelerator Laboratory, now Fermilab, September 12, 1970, left to right: Norman Ramsey, Francis Perrin, Robert R. Wilson Pugwash NAL tour 1970-com.jpg
Pugwash encounter and tour held at the National Accelerator Laboratory, now Fermilab, September 12, 1970, left to right: Norman Ramsey, Francis Perrin, Robert R. Wilson

Pugwash's first fifteen years coincided with the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the Vietnam War. Pugwash played a useful role in opening communication channels during a time of otherwise-strained official and unofficial relations. It provided background work to the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963), the Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968), the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), and the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993). Former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara has credited a backchannel Pugwash initiative (code named PENNSYLVANIA) with laying the groundwork for the negotiations that ended the Vietnam War. [8] Mikhail Gorbachev admitted the influence of the organisation on him when he was leader of the Soviet Union. [9] In addition, Pugwash has been credited with being a groundbreaking and innovative "transnational" organization [10] and a leading example of the effectiveness of Track II diplomacy.

During the Cold War, it was claimed that the Pugwash Conference became a front conference for the Soviet Union, whose agents often managed to weaken Pugwash critique of USSR and instead concentrate on blaming the United States and the West. [11] In 1980, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence received a report that the Pugwash Conference was used by Soviet delegates to promote Soviet propaganda. Joseph Rotblat said in his 1998 Bertrand Russell Peace Lecture that there were a few participants in the conferences from the Soviet Union "who were obviously sent to push the party line, but the majority were genuine scientists and behaved as such". [12]

Following the end of the Cold War, the traditional Pugwash focus on decreasing the salience of nuclear weapons and promoting a world free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction addresses the following issue areas: [13]

The Pugwash movement has also been concerned with environmental issues and as a result of its 1988 meeting in Dagomys it issued the Dagomys Declaration on Environmental Degradation ( [14] ).

Nobel Peace Prize

In 1995, fifty years after the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and forty years after the signing of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, the Pugwash Conferences and Joseph Rotblat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms." The Norwegian Nobel committee hoped that awarding the prize to Rotblat and Pugwash would "encourage world leaders to intensify their efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons." In his acceptance speech, Rotblat quoted a key phrase from the Manifesto: "Remember your humanity."

International Foundation for Science

From the 1965 Pugwash conference came a recommendation to establish the International Foundation for Science "in order to address the stultifying conditions under which younger faculty members in the universities of developing countries were attempting to do research". [15] The organization gives grants to early-career scientists in low-income countries for work on local water resources and biology. [15]

Secretaries General

Pugwash Presidents

As of 2019, 13 individuals have served as Presidents of the Pugwash Conferences. [18]

Pugwashites

The Pugwash Conference itself does not have formal membership (although national organisations do [21] [22] ). All participants take part in their individual capacities and not as representatives of any organization, institution or government. Anyone who has attended a meeting is considered a "Pugwashite". There are more than 3,500 "Pugwashites" worldwide.

Pugwash Council for the 2007–2012 Quinquennium

Other Pugwashites

Legacy

As the birthplace of the Pugwash movement, the Thinkers' Lodge was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008. [23]

Jubilee Pugwash Conference Astana

The Jubilee 62nd Pugwash Conference devoted to nuclear disarmament was held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, in 2017. [24] The conference celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first Pugwash Conference, held in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in 1957. [25] The theme of the conference was "Confronting New Nuclear Dangers." [26] The conference agenda focused on strengthening the nuclear test ban and combating terrorism.

The Astana conference working groups included: [26]

See also

Notes

  1. Russell's exclusion is explained because the Nobel Prizes are never awarded posthumously.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear disarmament</span> Act of eliminating nuclear weapons

Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term denuclearization is also used to describe the process leading to complete nuclear disarmament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Rotblat</span> Polish-British physicist (1908–2005)

Sir Joseph Rotblat was a Polish and British physicist. During World War II he worked on Tube Alloys and the Manhattan Project, but left the Los Alamos Laboratory on grounds of conscience after it became clear to him in 1944 that Germany had ceased development of an atomic bomb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. F. Powell</span> British physicist

Cecil Frank Powell, FRS was a British physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for heading the team that developed the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and for the resulting discovery of the pion (pi-meson), a subatomic particle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Peace Council</span> International disarmament organization

The World Peace Council (WPC) is an international organization with the stated goals of advocating for universal disarmament, sovereignty and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism, weapons of mass destruction and all forms of discrimination. Founded from an initiative of the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties, WPC emerged from the bureau's worldview that divided humanity into Soviet-led "peace-loving" progressive forces and US-led "warmongering" capitalist countries. Throughout the Cold War, WPC operated as a front organization as it was controlled and largely funded by the Soviet Union, and refrained from criticizing or even defended the Soviet Union's involvement in numerous conflicts. These factors led to the decline of its influence over the peace movement in non-Communist countries. Its first president was the French physicist and activist Frédéric Joliot-Curie. It was based in Helsinki, Finland from 1968 to 1999, and since in Athens, Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyrus S. Eaton</span> Canadian-American investment banker, businessman and philanthropist

Cyrus Stephen Eaton Sr. was a Canadian-American investment banker, businessman and philanthropist, with a career that spanned seventy years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell–Einstein Manifesto</span> 1955 manifesto on the dangers of nuclear weapons

The Russell–Einstein Manifesto was issued in London on 9 July 1955 by Bertrand Russell in the midst of the Cold War. It highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict. The signatories included eleven pre-eminent intellectuals and scientists, including Albert Einstein, who signed it shortly before his death on 18 April 1955. Shortly after the release, philanthropist Cyrus S. Eaton offered to sponsor a conference—called for in the manifesto—in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Eaton's birthplace. The conference, held in July 1957, became the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

International Student/Young Pugwash (ISYP) is an international organization that promotes awareness and action among students and young professionals in relation to ethical implications of science and technology policy, particularly matters of international security and weapons of mass destruction. It developed from the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco Calogero</span>

Francesco Calogero is an Italian physicist, active in the community of scientists concerned with nuclear disarmament.

The Albert Einstein Peace Prize was a peace prize awarded annually since 1980 by the Albert Einstein Peace Prize Foundation. The Foundation dates from 1979, the centenary of the birth of Albert Einstein, and evokes the Russell–Einstein Manifesto which urges nuclear disarmament. It was established, with the sponsorship of the trustees of Einstein's estate, by William M. Swartz (1912–87) a wealthy businessman and the grandfather of activist Aaron Swartz. William M. Swartz was involved in the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and established the Foundation in part to support Pugwash. Prize winners, mainly active in nuclear disarmament, receive(d) $50,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jayantha Dhanapala</span> Sri Lankan diplomat (1938–2023)

Jayantha Dhanapala was a Sri Lankan diplomat who served as member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and was a governing board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Dhanapala was also a distinguished member of Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka and he was the Senior Special Advisor on Foreign Relations to President Maithripala Sirisena, and was Sri Lanka's official candidate for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations, before withdrawing from the race on 29 September 2006. From 2007 he was the President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

Anti-nuclear organizations may oppose uranium mining, nuclear power, and/or nuclear weapons. Anti-nuclear groups have undertaken public protests and acts of civil disobedience which have included occupations of nuclear plant sites. Some of the most influential groups in the anti-nuclear movement have had members who were elite scientists, including several Nobel Laureates and many nuclear physicists.

Nuclear Weapons: The Road to Zero is a 1998 book edited by Joseph Rotblat, a Polish physicist and 1995 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The book is based on the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and in particular on a detailed international study published in 1993 on the importance of, and practical mechanisms to, eliminate nuclear weapons. This monograph is a series of essays that describe the many complex technical, economic, legal and political issues involved. Contrary to the approach of nuclear powers -- that these weapons are needed for national security -- is the "no longer fanciful dream" of a nuclear-weapon-free world. Rotblat suggests that this is "a sound and practical objective, which could be realized in the foreseeable future."

Nobelity is a feature documentary which looks at the world's most pressing problems through the eyes of Nobel laureates, including Desmond Tutu, Sir Joseph Rotblat, Ahmed Zewail and Wangari Maathai.

During the Cold War (1947–1991), when the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in an arms race, the Soviet Union promoted its foreign policy through the World Peace Council and other front organizations. Some writers have claimed that it also influenced non-aligned peace groups in the West.

The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe — is an international non-governmental organisation uniting leading world-renowned experts on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, materials and delivery vehicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the anti-nuclear movement</span> Aspect of history

The application of nuclear technology, both as a source of energy and as an instrument of war, has been controversial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paolo Cotta-Ramusino</span> Italian physicist

Paolo Cotta-Ramusino has been Secretary General of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs since August 2002. He is also Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Milan (Italy) and Senior Researcher at the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics. Cotta-Ramusino is an adjunct Professor, Centre of International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and an Associate with the Project on Managing the Atom, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the World Academy of Art and Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Day against Nuclear Tests</span>

The International Day against Nuclear Tests is observed on August 29. It was established on December 2, 2009, at the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly by the resolution 64/35, which was adopted unanimously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Nobel Peace Prize</span> Award

The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition on such weapons," according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee announcement on October 6, 2017. The award announcement acknowledged the fact that "the world's nine nuclear-armed powers and their allies" neither signed nor supported the treaty-based prohibition known as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or nuclear ban treaty, yet in an interview Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen told reporters that the award was intended to give "encouragement to all players in the field" to disarm. The award was hailed by civil society as well as governmental and intergovernmental representatives who support the nuclear ban treaty, but drew criticism from those opposed. At the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony held in Oslo City Hall on December 10, 2017, Setsuko Thurlow, an 85-year-old woman who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn jointly received a medal and diploma of the award on behalf of ICAN and delivered the Nobel lecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Lindop</span> British professor of radiation biology

Patricia Joyce Lindop FRCP was British professor of radiation biology at the University of London and the organiser of at least 100 "Pugwash" meetings at which scientists met to discuss their campaign for nuclear disarmament.

References

  1. "The Nobel Peace Prize 1995". Nobel Prize . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  2. SB (1955-07-09). "Statement: The Russell-Einstein Manifesto". Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  3. Pugwash (1955-07-09). "London launch of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto". Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  4. "The Russell- Einstein Manifesto" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-02-14. Retrieved 2019-01-11.
  5. Admin, T. L. "Thinkers Lodge - Thinkers Lodge - Beautiful, historic venue for weddings, conferences, and retreats in Nova Scotia, Canada". Thinkers Lodge. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  6. Epstein 1996, p. 266.
  7. 1 2 "Principles, Structure and Activities of Pugwash For the Eleventh Quinquennium (2007–2012)". Archived from the original on 2003-08-19.
  8. McNamara, "Conversations with History," interview with Harry Kreisler, Archived 2012-05-21 at the Wayback Machine . See also Robert McNamara (et al), "Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy," Public Affairs,1999, pp. 292–312.
  9. von Hippel, Frank. "Better Active Today than Radioactive Tomorrow". FAS Public Interest Report. The Journal of the Federation of American Scientists. Winter 2004 Volume 57, Number 1. Archived from the original on 2009-06-04.
  10. Matthew Evangelista, Unarmed Forces: The Transnational Movement to End the Cold War, Cornell University Press, 1999.
  11. Richard Felix Staar, Foreign policies of the Soviet Union , Hoover Press, 1991, ISBN   0-8179-9102-6, p.86-87
  12. "Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies". mulpress.mcmaster.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  13. For recent meetings and topics, see www.pugwash.org
  14. Pugwash (1988-09-03). "Dagomys Declaration of the Pugwash Council". Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  15. 1 2 "About IFS". International Foundation for Science. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  16. Tributes to Dr. Martin M. Kaplan Tributes to Dr. Martin M. Kaplan at the Wayback Machine (archived June 17, 2011)
  17. "Home | MIT Security Studies Program (SSP)". ssp.mit.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  18. Pugwash Presidency Background Note, Pugwash Conferences, 2007
  19. Ganz, Adam (19 August 2014). "Thatcher and Hodgkin: How chemistry overcame politics". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  20. "Pugwash announces new President". Pugwash. September 7, 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  21. "Join British Pugwash". British Pugwash. 2014-07-22. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  22. "Student Pugwash USA". www.spusa.org. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  23. Thinkers' Lodge National Historic Site of Canada . Canadian Register of Historic Places . Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  24. "Astana to host Conference on Nuclear Disarmament". www.m.kazpravda.kz. Archived from the original on 2017-08-07. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  25. Admin1 (2016-02-02). "Pugwash Delegation Visits Kazakhstan". Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
  26. 1 2 "62nd Pugwash Conference, Astana". Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. 25 August 2017.

Books

Archival collections