9:00 Arrival
9:15 – 9:20 Welcome
Professor Martin Rees, Lord Rees of Ludlow OM Kt PRS
President of the Royal Society and also Master of Trinity College,
and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge
• These introductory remarks highlighted the purpose of the
day: to explore concrete suggestions for creating and developing the
political and technical environments conducive to the eventual attainment
of a nuclear weapons free world. As achieving this end was the major
focus of Professor Joseph Rotblat’s life’s work, this workshop
was also a highly appropriate way in which to honour the centenary of
his birth.
Click here for pdf
of welcoming remarks.
9:20 – 9:30 Keynote talk
Baroness Williams of Crosby
Advisor on Nuclear Proliferation to Prime Minister Gordon Brown
• In a June letter in the Times, echoing the earlier
letter to the Wall Street Journal by the "four horsemen"
Kissinger, Nunn, Perry and Schultz, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Lord Hurd of
Westwell, Lord Owen of Plymouth, and Lord Robertson of Port Ellen argued
that substantial progress on nuclear disarmament is possible, and given
political will and improvements in monitoring, the long-term goal of
a nuclear weapons free world is achievable. The President-Elect of the
United States, Mr Barack Obama, has indicated his own commitment to
that goal. Yet little progress has been made. What can be done?"
Click here
for notes on Baroness Williams' keynote address.
9.30 – 9.45 Opening presentation
Current HMG thinking on the way ahead on nuclear disarmament
and non-proliferation
Speaker: Simon Manley
Director, Defence and Strategic Threats, FCO
Click here for
notes on Simon Manley's talk.
9.45 – 10.45 Session 1: Creating and maintaining the
conditions for a
Nuclear Weapons Free World
Chair: Baroness Williams
• A nuclear weapons free world is not just a technical problem
of verification of weapons dismantling and the prevention of further
nuclear proliferation. It requires serious political problems to be
solved and conditions to be created in which such a world is sustainable.
Based on current Pugwash experiences in creating dialogue in areas of
tension, including with Iran, Kashmir, and the DPRK, this session will
explore the role the scientific community can play when diplomatic or
other discussions are stalemated. It also will explore ways of increasing
the likelihood of a successful 2010 NPT Review Conference, and highlight
areas in which progress in the UK might create conditions for further
movement on an international level.
Presentation 1: Implications of present regional conflicts
for nuclear disarmament
Speaker: Professor Paolo Cotta-Ramusino
Secretary-General, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World
Affairs
Click
here for notes on Prof. Cotta-Ramusino's talk.
Presentation 2: Working towards a strengthened NPT in
2010 and beyond
Speaker: Amb. Jayantha Dhanapala
President, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs and President
1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference
Click
here for notes on Amb. Dhanapala's talk.
11:30 – 13:00 Session 2: Progressing the agenda of a
nuclear weapon free world: mechanisms, methodologies and institutions
Chair: Professor John Finney
• A nuclear-weapons-free future is now on the international political
agenda, as a result of the ground-breaking letter of George Schultz,
William Perry, Henry Kissinger and Sam Nunn in the Wall Street Journal
on 4 January 2007, the speech made by Margaret Beckett to the Carnegie
Institute on 25 June 2007, recent speeches made by the Prime Minister,
Foreign Secretary and the previous Defence Secretary, and the letter
from Douglas Hurd, Malcolm Rifkind, David Owen and George Robertson
in the Times on 30 June 2008. The IISS Adelphi Paper
“Abolishing Nuclear Weapons” of September 2008 analysed
the challenges that exist to abolishing nuclear weapons, and suggests
what can be done now to start overcoming them. This session explored
some of the possible ways in which progress on ‘technical’
issues might be taken forward, including the role of governments and
the think tanks, development of the disarmament laboratory idea and
the role of the weapons labs. Finally, as making progress towards nuclear
disarmament will require a major change in public attitudes, ways in
which this might be done effectively were discussed. Tackling this latter
problem was a major priority of Joseph Rotblat in the last few years
of his life.
Presentation 3: Taking the IISS report forward: roles for
governments, think tanks and the general public
Speaker: Dr James Acton
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Click here
for notes on Dr. Acton's talk.
Presentation 4: Developing the disarmament laboratory concept
Speaker: Dr Christopher Watson
British Pugwash Executive Committee and Royal Society Standing
Committee on Scientific Aspects of International Security
Click here for PDF
of Dr Watson's Powerpoint presentation.
Presentation 5: Changing attitudes and ‘identity’:
reaching pivotal constituencies
Speaker: Carol Naughton
Co-ordinator, WMD Awareness Programme
Click here for
PDF of Carol Naughton's Powerpoint presentation.
Concluding remarks: possible ways forward
13:00 Seminar ends
