Disarming Our Planet

Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro chose to begin their book, The Internationalists, with the following description of the historic event on August 27, 1928: “On that day, crowds gathered outside the Quai d’Orsay to watch the world leaders arrive at the Clock Room in the immense...

If conflict is inevitable in human relations, so might be efforts to reconcile and reach a state of peace. ...

We know we are facing an existential crisis with the advance of climate change; and what about the other existential threat? Nuclear weapons. Unless we arrest climate change, it will fundamentally change our civilization in a matter of decades, maybe threaten life on this planet...

In the centennial year, while the world was getting used to writing or typing the year beginning with a “2” instead of a “1,” countries of the world were introduced to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals encouraging the 193 member states to adopt a set of 8 goals...

There are many aspects to helping our planet disarm meaningfully. 108 countries are now part of treaties that have established nuclear free zones around the world. They are making a concerted effort to create a nuclear free planet and that alone needs to be applauded and the...

I’m a member of the Preventing Gun Violence Task Force at the Unitarian Society of New Haven (USNH). We recently bought shares in two companies that manufacture firearms. “What?!,” you may be asking. Usually activists shy away from investing in so-called “sin” stocks, looking...

Young Adult Gun Violence Prevention Activist on Radical Kinship and Universal Love

Feel like the system is too big to change? Protest!

Much of the following text is taken from a blog post from the International Committee of the Red Cross: Human Cost of Cyber Operations—Key ICRC Takeaways from Discussion with Tech Experts. ICRC has encouraged readers to share this blog, and they invite feedback from readers. The...

An appeal was recently distributed to navy personnel at Bangor Naval Base in Washington State, calling on navy personnel to "Refuse to engage in nuclear annihilation." This appeal is reprinted here with permission of the Ground Zero Center in Seattle, WA.

On April 14, 2019 the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, NJ hosted a conference on Steps To A Nuclear Weapons-Free World.

It is often stated – incorrectly – that the Chinese character for “crisis” includes the symbols for both “danger” and “opportunity.” While that may not be literally correct, the character does mean “a pivotal moment when things happen or change.” The world is at such a juncture...

While disarming our planet in today’s world includes among other things the goal of eliminating the use of weapons of mass destruction in large- and small-scale combat situations we generally describe as war, one wonders when and how did the notion of “war” and a soldier’s “...

According to a press release from the United Nations Office in Geneva, Part I of the Conference on Disarmament held on March 26, 2019 had concluded with a proposal from the United States. Its “Create an Environment for Nuclear Disarmament” Initiative hopes to bring together as...

Work to disarm our planet continues. Some good news of late reveals increasing support of the Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons with the ratification by South Africa, the 22nd country to do so with the distinction of being the only country which gave up its program to develop...

Recent news from companies like Salesforce, Google, and Microsoft has seen a segment of their work force protesting their companies’ connections with military policies in support of issues of major concern to those working for disarmament. ...

It seems time for some more good news. In opening up the homepage from the International Atomic Energy Agency website, the lead article read: “EU and IAEA Review Progress and Agree on Priorities in Nuclear Cooperation at Annual Meeting.” There it was: an actual story of...

On Feb. 1, the Trump administration announced it will pull the U.S. out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF), thus undoing one of the pillars of global security and potentially plunging the world into a new nuclear arms race. The 1987 signing of this treaty by U...

If you are old enough to have lived through it or have studied it, do you remember the Marshall Plan? Officially known as the European Recovery Program, the Marshall Plan was a 1948 American initiative to aid post-WWII Western Europe to rebuild their economies through economic...

This article originally appeared as the Introduction to a Special issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Spotlight on nuclear modernization on January 7, 2019, and is republished here with permission. ...