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What's New from British Pugwash
VOICE
YOUR VISION
2010 Science, Ethics and Politics Competition
in honour of Nobel Peace Laureate Joseph Rotblat
What advice
would you give the next British Government
on a key science or technology topic?
For
further information click here.
- "Connecting
Inconvient Truths: The Urgency of Nuclear Disarmament in a World
of Pressing Problems", Pugwash President Jayantha
Dhanapala, 1 December. Please click here
for more information, a PDF of the talk, and photos.
-
Report
of Working Group on The Management of Separated Plutonium in
the UK, a new report from British
Pugwash. The report received national media attention and was
released at a joint British Pugwash-VERTIC event on 26 November,
"Securing Fissile Materials." Click here
for more information about the launch. Please click here
for the report and further information.
- British Pugwash President
Robert Hinde gave a talk on "Ending War" on 18 November for
CCADD. Click here
for more information.
- Pugwash President Jayantha
Dhanapala, St. John's College, Cambridge University, 12 November, on
‘The Military-Industrial Complex, the Bottom Billion and the UN’ (click
for the PowerPoint,
poster and flyer)
- BPG President Robert Hinde's
letter in the Times, 16 October 2009, was titled, "Why
does the government persist with the Trident nuclear weapon programme?"
(click here)
- On 16 October 2009, Robert
Hinde's letter in the Guardian questioned the need for more
troops in Afghanistan. (click here)
- Pugwash President Jayantha
Dhanapala, who was in residence at St. John's College for the Autumn,
spoke at a meeting at SOAS on 5 October. The talk was titled, ""The
Middle East and the quest for a nuclear weapon-free world". This
event was part of the 4th
London Conference on A Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free
Zone, organised by the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy
at SOAS, and co-sponsored by British Pugwash.
- Paddy Ashdown delivered
the Annual Rotblat Lecture at the Hay Literary Festival, on 25 May 2009,
chaired by journalist Rosie Boycott and introduced by BPG Chair John
Finney. Please click here for more information.
-
Ending
War: A Recipe, by Robert Hinde (click here).
Full text now available online!
- Annual Report of the Executive
Committee 2008 - 2009, British Pugwash (Cllick here).
BPG
Chair John Finney and Executive Secretary Sandra Butcher
and members of the Pugwash Council met 28 July with former UK Defence
Secretary Des Browne MP to discuss the new Top-Level Group of UK Parliamentarians
for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.
(Left to right: Sandra Butcher, Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, Sverre Lodgaard,
Des Browne, John Finney, Jeffrey Boutwell)
What is Pugwash?
An international movement of scientists and others with a professional
concern about the social impact of science and seeking ways to prevent
its misuse. Particular attention is given to banning weapons of mass
destruction (nuclear, chemical, biological); to the solution of conflict
without resort to force; to the creation of a sustainable environment;
and to bettering the conditions of life of all people. The movement
has its origin in the Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955, which called
on scientists to meet to find ways to avert the threat to civilization
created by the advent of thermonuclear weapons. It took its name from
the venue of the first meeting in 1957 – the Canadian village of Pugwash.
In 1995 it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with its then
President, Joseph Rotblat.
What does Pugwash
do? It organizes meetings (8-10 a year) of scientists and scholars
from all over the world with the aim of influencing government policies
and public thinking on topical problems of global security. Meeting
in private, as individuals representing only themselves, they are able
to reach conclusions which often pave the way to governmental agreements
and international treaties. The topics on the agenda of the workshops
and at the annual conferences range from nuclear forces, to foreign
debts, to social tensions and ethnic conflict, to the elimination of
war. Reports on activities are published in the Pugwash Newsletter and
Proceedings of Conferences. Pugwash also runs projects (eg. A Nuclear-Weapon-Free
World; Conversion of Military R&D; Education for World Citizenship)
which culminate in books.
The British Pugwash
Group holds seminars and public meetings on relevant international
and UK topics; it prepares papers for the international Pugwash meetings;
and nominates participants from the UK for international workshops and
conferences. It also runs research projects and issues a variety of publications aiming to inform public opinion and to
influence Government policy, especially on international security issues.
The British Pugwash Group is part of the network of National Groups
supporting the International Pugwash
Movement. Membership is open to anyone living in the UK and qualified
by profession or experience to contribute to the work of Pugwash. We
coordinate closely with our associated Student Group.
Pugwash traces its origins
to the publication, in London in July 1955, of the "Russell-Einstein
Manifesto". The launch meeting was chaired by Joseph Rotblat
and attended by a number of other distinguished British scientists who,
following the 1957 first international conference, in Pugwash, Nova
Scotia, Canada, set up a "British Advisory Committee for Pugwash",
which evolved, in 1963, to become the British Pugwash Group, initially
under the chairmanship of Sir Neville Mott.
What have The
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs achieved?
By providing a channel of communications between influential scientists
and scholars from East and West during the Cold War period, Pugwash
was able to facilitate better understanding between the adversaries,
which helped to make possible agreement on important issues, such as
the Partial Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Biological Weapons Convention.
Recently it has contributed to large reduction in nuclear arsenals,
the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
However, much still needs to be done to secure peace in the world.
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