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The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was founded in 1957 by Joseph Rotblat and Bertrand Russell in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, following the release of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955.
Rotblat and the Pugwash Conference won jointly the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts on nuclear disarmament.[1][note 1] International Student/Young Pugwash groups have existed since founder Cyrus Eaton's death in 1979.
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, released July 9, 1955, called for a conference for scientists to assess the dangers of weapons of mass destruction (then only considered to be nuclear weapons). Cyrus Eaton, an industrialist and philanthropist, offered on July 13 to finance and host the conference in the town of his birth, Pugwash, Nova Scotia. This was not taken up at the time because a meeting was planned for India, at the invitation of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. With the outbreak of the Suez Crisis the Indian conference was postponed. Aristotle Onassis offered to finance a meeting in Monaco instead, but this was rejected. Eaton's former invitation was taken up.
The first conference was held at what became known as Thinkers' Lodge[2] in July 1957 in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. Twenty-two scientists attended the first conference:
Cyrus Eaton, Eric Burhop, Ruth Adams, Anne Kinder Jones, and Vladimir Pavlichenko also were present. Many others were unable to attend, including co-founder Bertrand Russell, for health reasons.
Pugwash's "main objective is the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical and biological) and of war as a social institution to settle international disputes. To that extent, peaceful resolution of conflicts through dialogue and mutual understanding is an essential part of Pugwash activities, that is particularly relevant when and where nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction are deployed or could be used."[3]
"The various Pugwash activities (general conferences, workshops, study groups, consultations and special projects) provide a channel of communication between scientists, scholars, and individuals experienced in government, diplomacy, and the military for in-depth discussion and analysis of the problems and opportunities at the intersection of science and world affairs. To ensure a free and frank exchange of views, conducive to the emergence of original ideas and an effective communication between different or antagonistic governments, countries and groups, Pugwash meetings as a rule are held in private. This is the main modus operandi of Pugwash. In addition to influencing governments by the transmission of the results of these discussions and meetings, Pugwash also may seek to make an impact on the scientific community and on public opinion through the holding of special types of meetings and through its publications."[3]
Officers include the president and secretary-general. Formal governance is provided by the Pugwash Council, which serves for five years. There is also an executive committee that assists the secretary-general. Jayantha Dhanapala is the current president. Paolo Cotta-Ramusino is the current Secretary General.
The four Pugwash offices, in Rome (international secretariat), London, Geneva, and Washington D.C., provide support for Pugwash activities and serve as liaisons to the United Nations and other international organizations.
There are approximately fifty national Pugwash groups, organized as independent entities and often supported or administered by national academies of science.
The International Student/Young Pugwash groups works with, but are independent from, the international Pugwash group.
During the front conference for the Soviet Union, whose agents often managed to weaken Pugwash critique of USSR and instead concentrate on blaming the United States and the West.[7] In 1980, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence received a report that the Pugwash Conference was used by Soviet delegates to promote Soviet propaganda. Joseph Rotblat said in his 1998 Bertrand Russell Peace Lecture that there were a few participants in the conferences from the Soviet Union "who were obviously sent to push the party line, but the majority were genuine scientists and behaved as such".[8]
Following the end of the Cold War, the traditional Pugwash focus on decreasing the salience of nuclear weapons and promoting a world free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction addresses the following issue areas:[9]
The Pugwash movement has also been concerned with environmental issues and as a result of its 1988 meeting in Dagomys it issued the Dagomys Declaration on Environmental Degradation (see the External link Dagomys Declaration on Environmental Degradation below).
In 1995, fifty years after the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and forty years after the signing of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, the Pugwash Conferences and Joseph Rotblat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly
The Norwegian Nobel committee hoped that awarding the prize to Rotblat and Pugwash would
In his acceptance speech, Rotblat quoted a key phrase from the Manifesto:
From the 1965 Pugwash conference came a recommendation to establish the International Foundation for Science "in order to address the stultifying conditions under which younger faculty members in the universities of developing countries were attempting to do research".[10] The organization gives grants to early-career scientists in low-income countries for work on local water resources and biology.[10]
[11]
Pugwash does not have formal membership. All participants take part in their individual capacities and not as representatives of any organization, institution or government. Anyone who has attended a meeting is considered a "Pugwashite". There are more than 3,500 "Pugwashites" worldwide.
As the birthplace of the Pugwash movement, the Thinkers' Lodge was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008.[13]
Switzerland, Austria, Italy, United Kingdom, France
Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophy of science, David Hume
Norwegian Nobel Committee, Barack Obama, Al Gore, Nobel Prize in Literature, European Union
Isle of Man, India, Canada, European Union, British Overseas Territories
Ontario, Quebec City, Quebec, Ottawa, Aboriginal peoples in Canada
Rome, United Nations, Amnesty International, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Mikhail Gorbachev
United Kingdom, Authority control, William O'Callaghan (Irish Army officer), Ghana army, England
Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Wałęsa, United Nations, Betty Williams (Nobel laureate), 14th Dalai Lama
Philippines, India, Indonesia, Tibetan Buddhism, Thailand