The British Pugwash Group and the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD) at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) teamed up in mid-June for a series of successful events.

On 16 June 2008, Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala, gave a special keynote address on “The Urgency of Disarmament.”  In the speech, Jayantha touched upon the worrying upwards trend in military expenditure.  He noted that current global military spending "translates into an expenditure of 202 US dollars for every man, woman and child on this globe, which sadly contrasts with the fact that 1 billion people live on below 1 dollar a day". 

He assessed the need for disarmament from the nuclear weapons States under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), making the link with the urgency for action in the conventional sphere as well. Jayantha applauded the recent Cluster Munitions Convention negotiated outside of the UN framework and also endorsed the many positive aspects of UN action on conventional and unconventional weapons since the end of the Cold War.

Quoting Shakespeare, "There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune", Jayantha expressed his hope that through the renaissance in nuclear disarmament that we are seeing we may grasp this moment and achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons.

On 17 June, CISD held its 3rd annual conference on the issue of a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East. The conference was again co-hosted by the British Pugwash Group and was kindly sponsored by the Kingdom of Norway and the State of Qatar. 

Speakers included:  Mr Simon Manley, Director of Defence and Strategic Threats, UK FCO; HE Wael Al-Assad, Director of Disarmament and Multilateral Affairs, League of Arab States; HE Dr Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the IAEA; HE Dr Sami Khiyami, Ambassador of Syria to the Court of St James; Dr Wolfgang Rudischhauser, Office of the EU Special Representative on Non-Proliferation; HE Dr Hussain Al-Shahristani, Minister for Oil, State of Iraq; Mr Sameh Aboul-Enein, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Sara Eriksen (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI); and Professor Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, Pugwash Secretary General.

The Centre also organised a student workshop in cooperation with British Pugwash to discuss the morning's proceedings and discuss initiatives for freeing the Middle East region of all weapons of mass destruction.  Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala was among the speakers at the student workshop.

Dhanapala’s visit to London also included meetings with top  UK government ministers, officials and journalists, as well as presentations at IISS and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Security and Non-Proliferation. A garden party in his honour was hosted by Cambridge Student Pugwash.