54th Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs: Bridging a Divided World Through International Cooperation and Disarmament

Arabic version published in Al-Ahram Newspaper, Cairo, 18 October 2004
Translated from the Arabic by Mervat Kaseem, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Cairo

It was my first time to travel the distance of ten flight hours eastwards – to Seoul, the capital of South Korea – to participate in the yearly Pugwash Conference on Sciences and World Affairs and to attend the council's meeting as one of its members since 2002. The conference was opened by Kim Dae-Jung, former South Korean President and Nobel Prize Laureate for the peace efforts during his political administration aiming at ending the hostility between South and North Korea, the policy which became to be known as the “Sunshine” policy. The purpose was to melt the ice between both ends of the divided country and to reach the unification of both parts. Also attending and addressing the conference were the Ministers of Education and Defense, the city governor of Seoul, the head of the Academy for Science and Research and other important personalities from the Korean government and non-government sector.

Heading the organizing committee was a former general, Dr. Park Seh-Jik. On several occasions he mentioned proudly to have previously headed the organizing committee for the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988 as well as Mondial World Cup Korea-Japan for soccer in 2002. Dr. Mohamed Al-Baradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency spoke to the 150 participating scientists from different countries and who are specialized in disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear and mass destructive weapons. From the Arab and Islamic world there were experts from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.

The conference split up after the opening session into 5 working groups discussing papers and research on eliminating nuclear weapons, building cooperative security: the case of the Middle East, international terrorism and consequences of the 'War on Terror', economic cooperation and development in East Asia, and non-military threats to security.

The Pugwash Council has agreed to nominate Egypt as a host of the annual conference in 2006; Japan's city of Hiroshima will host the conference in 2005 on the commemoration of 60 years after the dropping of the first nuclear bomb on the 6th of August, 1945.

This year's topic of the conference conforms with the conditions in East Asia, the region that comes second to the Middle East in terms of a critical security situation, and where ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons are prevalent. It also lies between three powers who rarely agree with each other: the United States, Russia and China. Earlier, this region was a major battle field during the Second World War, where two nuclear bombs were dropped. The region also holds divided countries such as Korea, with South Korea adopting a western democratic and capitalist system, and with about 30,000 American soldiers on its soil, and North Korea which is governed by the communist party and where the government and the party control everything. The Korean peninsula is challenged by the difficult security situation affected by the nuclear crisis between North Korea and the United States. There is a strong belief that North Korea owns the bomb. This nuclear crisis is similar to that of Iran in the Middle East. The Group of 6 are trying to solve the problem between North Korea and the United States in order to prevent the escalation and a possible U.S. military intervention in North Korea. In the light of all these challenges the conference's theme "Bridging a Divided World through International Cooperation and Disarmament" communicates the atmosphere in which it takes place. Pugwash as well as South Korea have tried hard to invite participants from North Korea to attend the conference, but did unfortunately not succeed.

The events in the Middle East are not too distant from the conference's topic. There are common factors between both regions, most important of which is the military presence of the United States with its strategic and cultural ideas. It is also known that Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have troops stationed in Iraq. That was the case also with the Philippines before they lately decided to withdraw their troops. The papers and studies that were presented during the working sessions stated that the world has reached a difficult threshold where its future will be defined. Many expressed their concerns that the non-proliferation treaty would collapse if the global situation is not re-examined on the question of nuclear weapons, especially when the treaty will be revised in a few months. The silence of the 5 nuclear weapons states concerning their obligation under the framework of the treaty to eliminate their nuclear arsenal within a reasonable time period is obvious. Further blows to the treaty are added by the emergence of nuclear powers outside the framework of the treaty, such as India and Pakistan, and the conundrum with Israel that owns the nuclear bomb but does not proclaim it which adds only more to mystery and distrust.

The latest terror events in Egypt bolstered the belief that solving persistent international problems would be the only way to seriously confronting collectively world terror. By delaying the confrontation we run the risk that nuclear weapons will fall into the hands of terror organizations.

Among the interesting lectures during the conference was the one that was given by Dr. Mohamed Al-Baradei. He concentrated on the future of the issue of nuclear non-proliferation and the priorities of the Agency within a changing and instable world. He touched on the importance of a dynamic collective security framework and solutions to the regional conflicts in order to constrict nuclear proliferation, especially in regard to the risk that nuclear weapons will find their way into the hands of terror organizations. He emphasized that inspections and diplomacy together were two dynamic factors for non-proliferation. The Agency cannot disregard the cases where the provisions of the convention are not being implemented by signatories. Discussions after the lecture revealed the concern of the Agency about the black market of nuclear substances and the Agency's efforts to curb this market politically and offering counseling in regard to nuclear safety and security. Mr. Al-Baradei refused the allegation that the Agency was a puppet of the United States: the Agency had a clear stance concerning the Iraq Crisis when it called for more investigation and inspection time to complete its report before launching the war and this request was denied by the United States and Great Britain.

During the meetings the Council issued its yearly statement in which it clearly warned of the potential collapse of the non-proliferation arrangement, and the increased threat that nuclear weapons might reach terrorist networks. The statement also made clear that the nuclear weapons states are partly responsible for the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the world by monopolizing nuclear technologies and applying pre-emptive offensive strategies forcing the other countries to possess nuclear weapons for their own defense. The declaration also reprimanded North Korea for withdrawing from the non-proliferation treaty, the fact which dealt a serious blow to the future of the treaty. It also criticized Israel's nuclear policy which is responsible for the fact that some Middle East countries in the vicinity are trying to progress their nuclear capacities. The declaration mentioned also the obstacles in reaching a convention banning the circulation of nuclear material, and the impediments that prevent the treaty on the absolute ban of nuclear tests from entering into the actual implementation. The declaration included specific indications concerning the security situation in Palestine and in Iraq, the suffering of many people from the lack of food, water and health care. Those challenges have to be confronted with the spirit of a collective responsibility.

The Pugwash organization was established in 1957 for a continuous dialogue between scientists and experts in the international security field, emanating from the individual responsibility of scientists towards mankind for achieving peace and preventing wars. The organization communicates the famous common declaration by the great American scientist Albert Einstein and the British philosopher Bertrand Russell on July 9, 1955, when they petitioned the scientists to take on responsibility for their achievements when the nuclear threat started to jeopardize humankind. The organization succeeded in bringing together - for the first time - a number of nuclear scientists from the United States, the Soviet Union and other western and eastern countries from 7 – 10 of July, 1957, in the village called Pugwash in Nova Scotia, Canada. From that date on the organization held about 290 conferences and has local branches in more than 50 countries. The Pugwash organization was co-awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1995 together with the honorary director Sir Joseph Rotblat, the only remaining member of the twenty-two scientists who had attended the first meeting in Canada. Sir Rotblat, 96 years old, participated in the Seoul conference and held the opening speech and a remarkable lecture with the topic "A World Without War: Is it aspired? Is it possible?" Due to the importance of this topic we will tackle it in a future article.