Press Coverage
IHT - 3 July 2007 | IHT - 6 July 2007 | IHT - 8 July 2007 | Additional media coverage
International Herald Tribune, 3 July 2007
Nuclear experts meeting again in Canada 50 years after first historic Pugwash disarmament conference
The Associated Press
Published: July 3, 2007
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia: Fifty years after nuclear scientists held a meeting in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, to discuss the threat of nuclear war, a new generation of scientists and diplomats are returning to the same Canadian village to discuss ways to revitalize nuclear disarmament.
The Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs — which along with one of its founders, Joseph Rotblat, was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 — will mark its 50th anniversary with a two-day meeting beginning Friday that will bring together nearly two dozen scientists, diplomats and former military commanders. Among the participants will be Tadatoshi Akiba, the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, which in August 1945 became the first city ever struck with an atomic bomb.
Rotblat, a Polish-born British physicist who resigned from working on the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs in the U.S. in 1944, became a leading critic of the nuclear arms race and was a co-founder of the first Pugwash conference in 1957. Rotblat died in 2005 at age 87.
The 1957 conference dealt with the dangers posed by nuclear weapons at the height of the Cold War and brought together scientists from both the U.S. and former Soviet Union. This weekend's conference in Pugwash will produce a letter to governments around the world stressing the need to dismantle existing nuclear arsenals.
Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire, the retired general who led a U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, says the pressure to disarm needs to be particularly focused on the United States and NATO, which have strategic policies that involve nuclear weapons.
The reluctance of world powers to get rid of their nuclear arms only encourages countries such as North Korea and Iran to develop their own nuclear arsenals, Dallaire says.
The Liberal senator, who passed a motion in the upper chamber of the Canadian parliament earlier this year calling on Canada to take a "global leadership role" on the disarmament issue, will be closely following a speech Saturday night by Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay for any sign that Canada is getting the message.
The Pugwash movement has its roots in a manifesto penned in 1955 by physicist Albert Einstein and British philosopher Bertrand Russell, calling on scientists to examine the dangers of nuclear war and adopt a resolution urging governments to disarm.
After plans for such a meeting in India fell apart, Pugwash-born philanthropist Cyrus Eaton offered to fund a conference at his summer home in northern Nova Scotia, now known as the Thinkers' Lodge.
American scientist Paul Doty recalls the first meeting was significant not just for what was discussed — such as the cancer risks posed by nuclear fallout — but for the co-operation among the scientific community it represented and the hundreds of future meetings it spawned.
"The egg was laid — the demonstration that it was possible to have coherent, honest and non-politicized discussions about a common danger," Doty said. "And that gave rise to a whole subculture of East-West discussions outside of government meetings."
While the number of nuclear warheads has been dropping over the past 20 years — the current figure still stands at roughly 27,000 worldwide — Doty says the possibility of one being detonated is increasing as more countries develop or modernize their nuclear stockpiles.
"I think we probably will lose a city or two in the next 10 or 20 years," said Doty, 87.
"One cannot imagine the return of the kind of threat we had in the Cold War, which was the loss of civilization. What we do look forward to is a much lower-level possibility. The proliferation of terrorist groups and countries that have access to a couple of weapons is growing."
International Herald Tribune, 6 July 2007
The United States and Russia need to lead the way in nuclear disarmament, international conference hears
The Associated Press
Published: July 6, 2007
PUGWASH, Nova Scotia: The United States and Russia need to lead the way in nuclear disarmament if the world is going to reduce the threat of a castastrophe, an international conference heard Friday.
It is those two powers, especially the United States, that need to lead the way, said Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, former U.N. under-secretary-general for disarmament affairs.
Dhanapala said the presence of large nuclear arsenals in those countries only prompts other countries to develop their own weapons, or modernize ones they already have.
"We want now for the nuclear weapon states to live up to their promises, to get rid of their nuclear weapons," Dhanapala said at a conference to discuss ways to revitalize nuclear disarmament.
"If we do not do that, there will be more countries who want to acquire nuclear weapons and there will be more terrorist groups who will want to acquire this weapon."
The Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs dates back to a similar meeting 50 years ago, when a local philanthropist invited experts from around to world to his summer home in the village to talk about nuclear arms during the Cold War. There have been hundreds of meetings since, and the movement was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
The United States and Russia pledged earlier this month to reduce their stockpiles of long-range nuclear weapons to the "lowest possible level," although they have not yet agreed on specific numbers.
A 1991 treaty called for reduction of long-range U.S. and Russian nuclear missiles by about one-third, or to a maximum of 6,000 deployed strategic warheads, apiece. It is due to expire in December 2009.
The 2002 Moscow treaty went further, calling on each side to reduce its operationally deployed strategic warheads to 1,700 to 2,220.
In an exchange of data last January, the Russians claimed to have 4,162 strategic warheads, and the United States claimed 5,866 in the U.S. arsenal.
The Moscow treaty, which expires in December 2012, sets a limit of 1,700 to 2,200 operationally deployed warheads on each side.
Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire, the retired general who led a U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, said Canada needs to stop standing on the sidelines of the debate over nuclear arms and use its influence in the world to encourage others to dismantle their dangerous arsenals.
He said it is no longer enough for Canada to simply stay out of the nuclear club and wash its hands of the issue.
Dallaire credited the Pugwash movement for keeping the issue of nuclear weapons in the public consciousness, but he said while the nature of the nuclear threat has changed, it still casts a dark shadow over the world five decades later.
The meetings — most of which are closed to the public to promote free debate — continue throughout the weekend.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay will speak at the conference that includes about two dozen scientists, diplomats and former military commanders.
Tadatoshi Akiba, the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan whose city felt the effects of nuclear weapons when bombed by the Americans during the Second World War, will also address delegates.
International Herald Tribune, 8 July 2007
Mikhail Gorbachev tells international conference more work is needed to achieve nuclear disarmament
The Associated Press
Published: July 8, 2007
PUGWASH, Nova Scotia: Mikhail Gorbachev told scientists and world leaders that more work is needed in the fight against a nuclear arms race during an international conference Saturday.
The last leader of the Soviet Union issued a statement Saturday to organizers at the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs saying that discussions like the ones being held at this assembly of world leaders and scientists is a good start.
"It is good to know that the (conference) is an ongoing, vibrant project that continues to bring together concerned scientists who fully understand the responsibility to humankind," Gorbachev said in a statement translated into English. Gorbachev did not attend the conference.
Experts from around the world first met in the small community of Pugwash, Nova Scotia in 1957 when a local-born philanthropist suggested his summer home would serve as a quiet and private place to discuss the threat of nuclear arms during the cold war.
Hundreds of meetings have since taken place throughout the world, and the so-called Pugwash movement was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
The latest conference, which ends Sunday, attracted two dozen international delegates including Tadatoshi Akiba, the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, where one of only two nuclear bombs was ever used as a weapon.
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire and Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald, along with Akiba, were expected to address delegates Saturday night.
Gorbachev negotiated an arms-reduction treaty with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1987.
A 1991 treaty called for reduction of long-range U.S. and Russian nuclear missiles by about one-third, or to a maximum of 6,000 deployed strategic warheads, apiece. It is due to expire in December 2009.
The 2002 Moscow treaty went further, calling on each side to reduce its operationally deployed strategic warheads to 1,700 to 2,220.
In an exchange of data last January, the Russians claimed to have 4,162 strategic warheads, and the United States claimed 5,866 in the U.S. arsenal.
The Moscow treaty, which expires in December 2012, sets a limit of 1,700 to 2,200 operationally deployed warheads on each side.
The United States and Russia pledged earlier this month to reduce their stockpiles of long-range nuclear weapons to the "lowest possible level," although they have not yet agreed on specific numbers.
"(We need to) build an intellectual foundation for agreements that would dramatically cut the arsenals of nuclear weapons on their way to their elimination and prevent an arms race in space," read Gorbachev's statement.
"We need your brainpower not just to analyze the problem, but to find solutions."
While many delegates say the nature of a nuclear threat has changed since the Cold War, they agree the roughly 27,000 nuclear warheads that remain around the world should not be ignored.
Thousands of the weapons can be launched with a half-hour's notice. Though most belong to the United States and Russia, countries including Israel, North Korea and possibly Iran are developing their own.
Those attending the conference plan to produce a letter to governments around the world, pressing their case to dismantle nuclear arsenals.
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