The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of 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 jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts on nuclear disarmament.[note 1] International Student/Young Pugwash groups have existed since founder Cyrus Eaton's death in 1979.
✪ Seminário Internacional "América do Sul na Era Nuclear: Riscos, Desafios e Perspectivas"
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.
one each from Australia (Mark Oliphant), Austria (Hans Thirring), China (Zhou Peiyuan), France (Antoine M. B. Lacassagne), and Poland (Marian Danysz).
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.
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.
The International Student/Young Pugwash groups works with, but are independent from, the international Pugwash group.
Pugwash's first fifteen years coincided with the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the Vietnam War. Pugwash played a useful role in opening communication channels during a time of otherwise-strained official and unofficial relations. It provided background work to the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963), the Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968), the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), and the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993). Former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara has credited a backchannel Pugwash initiative (code named PENNSYLVANIA) with laying the groundwork for the negotiations that ended the Vietnam War. Mikhail Gorbachev admitted the influence of the organisation on him when he was leader of the Soviet Union. In addition, Pugwash has been credited with being a groundbreaking and innovative "transnational" organization and a leading example of the effectiveness of Track II diplomacy.
During the Cold War, it was claimed that the Pugwash Conference became a 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. 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".
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 "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms." The Norwegian Nobel committee hoped that awarding the prize to Rotblat and Pugwash would "encourage world leaders to intensify their efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons." In his acceptance speech, Rotblat quoted a key phrase from the Manifesto: "Remember your humanity."
Earl (Bertrand) Russell, 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature, a founder of the movement, was its natural head in its initial years. The formal office of the presidency was established at the Quinquennial Conference in Ronneby, in 1967. The president's role was to "preside over the Annual Pugwash Conferences and, in addition, between Conferences, to offer his counsel and advice to the members of the Continuing Committee and the Secretary-General, and thereby assist them in the execution of the activities of the Movement."
Sir John Cockcroft, joint recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for pioneering work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles, was elected as the first president in 1967, though he died suddenly ten days later.
Lord Florey, who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for extraction of penicillin, was then invited to become president, though he also died within weeks. At that point the Continuing Committee decided to have a rotating presidency for a term of one year, to have that office held by a distinguished person in the country where the annual conference would be held each year.
Francis Perrin (1968), had worked with Frederic Joliot's team to establish in 1939 the possibility of nuclear chain reactions and nuclear energy production.
Mikhail Millionshchikov (1969), an eminent physicist who later became Speaker of the Russian Parliament.
Eugene Rabinowitch (1970), American biophysicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and was co-author with Leo Szilard of the Franck Report and co-founder in 1945 of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In September 1970, the Continuing Committee switched back to the initial idea of a permanent office of president, with a five-year term.
Hannes Alfvén (1970–1975), recipient of the 1970 Nobel in Physics for work on his theory of magnetohydrodynamics.
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1976–1988), recipient of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances.
Sir Joseph Rotblat (1988–1997), physicist, one of the founders of the Pugwash Movement, co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize.
Sir Michael Atiyah (1997–2002), a mathematician, was awarded the 1966 Fields Medal, for his work in developing K-theory.
Prof. M.S. Swaminathan (2002–2007), agricultural scientist, one of the pioneers of the Green Revolution and recipient of the World Food Prize and the UNESCO Gandhi Prize.
Prof. Francesco Calogero (Fmr Sec Gen), Prof, Theoretical Physics, Univ of Rome "La Sapienza".
Dr. Riad Malki, Min. of Foreign Affairs, Min. of Information, Palestinian Natl Authority.
As the birthplace of the Pugwash movement, the Thinkers' Lodge was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008.
^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 1995". Nobel Prize.
^ a b "Principles, Structure and Activities of Pugwash For the Eleventh Quinquennium (2007–2012)". Archived from the original on 2003-08-19.
^ McNamara, "Conversations with History," interview with Harry Kreisler, http://conversations.berkeley.edu/content/robert-s-mcnamara Archived 2012-05-21 at the Wayback Machine. See also Robert McNamara (et al), "Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy," Public Affairs,1999, pp. 292–312.
^ von Hippel, Frank. "Better Active Today than Radioactive Tomorrow". FAS Public Interest Report. The Journal of the Federation of American Scientists. Winter 2004 Volume 57, Number 1. Archived from the original on 2009-06-04.
^ a b "About IFS". International Foundation for Science. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
^ Ganz, Adam (19 August 2014). "Thatcher and Hodgkin: How chemistry overcame politics". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^ "Pugwash announces new President". Pugwash. September 7, 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
^ Thinkers' Lodge National Historic Site of Canada. Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
^ "Astana to host Conference on Nuclear Disarmament". www.m.kazpravda.kz. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
^ Admin1 (2016-02-02). "Pugwash Delegation Visits Kazakhstan". Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
^ a b "62nd Pugwash Conference, Astana". pugwash.org. Archived from the original on 2017-08-07.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
The Nobel Peace Prize, 1995.
The Early Days of Pugwash, by Joseph Rotblat in Physics Today, June 2001.
Pugwash And The International Treaties On Chemical And Biological Warfare, by J.P. Perry Robinson.
The Dagomys Declaration on Environmental Degradation.