Science in War

Two days before his death, Einstein signed a manifesto that called for a global ban on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons. The declaration was drawn up by Bertrand Russell and became known as the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. It drew together a group of eminent individuals who shared the goal of nuclear disarmament. They convened a series of conferences that became known as the Pugwash Conferences. For 40 years, these have been enormously influential in international negotiations on nuclear disarmament. But, Pugwash warns, we have taken our eye off the ball. The nuclear threat is as real as ever. If we have forgotten Einstein's last wish, then Pugwash certainly hasn't.

Pugwash is a very unusual kind of organisation. It is an affiliation of individuals devoted to encouraging the use of science for the good of humanity. A list of Pugwash members reads like a 'who's who' of scientists and policy-makers. Yet the organisation remains relatively anonymous and never allows the media into its meetings.

Pugwash's mission is to reduce the dangers of armed conflict and seek peaceful solutions to global problems. They meet as individuals. No-one is allowed to represent a government or an institution at Pugwash: a dictate that rules out any hidden ulterior motives that could sway individuals. They always meet in private and debate such gargantuan issues as arms control, global safety and conflict reduction. Their ultimate aim is to banish war.

For decades, Pugwash has run private conferences in which prominent individuals debate topics of deep concern to them on which they are not necessarily experts. Pugwash is content to influence governments and policy-makers through the back door – rather a high-class back door. The status of many participants is such that insights from Pugwash Conferences tend to penetrate quickly to high levels of policy-making.

On 23 December 1954, philosopher Bertrand Russell broadcast a speech on British radio entitled 'Man's Peril'. In it, he warned of the threat to humanity from the development of nuclear weapons. Following his speech, he wrote up a manifesto intended for signature by scientists from various countries. The first to be approached was Albert Einstein, who signed the manifesto two days before his death. Of the other 10 signatories, eight were Nobel Prize winners, and one was the only member of the Manhattan Project to have left on moral grounds – Joseph Rotblat.

The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, was a clear call to abolish nuclear weapons. Largely, it was a reaction to the continued development of nuclear weapons after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The hydrogen bomb, successfully tested two years previously, had the potential to be 2500 times more powerful than the atom bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

In 1955, with the shadow of the Cold War looming large, Bertrand Russell delivered the manifesto to a packed press conference. The only other signatory present was Joseph Rotblat who would become a major driving force in the Pugwash Conferences. The manifesto got excellent coverage in the press worldwide. It touched a chord, and letters and offers of help poured in from scientists and lay people alike.

Although it was aimed at exposing the horrors of nuclear obliteration, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto has remained a cornerstone of the Pugwash organisation. It brought home the idea that scientists have a responsibility to play an active role in the affairs of society.

Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war? People will not face this alternative because it is so difficult to abolish war.

Extract from the Russell-Einstein Manifesto

Response to the manifesto was impressive and there was soon a call for some sort of forum for discussion. This took the form of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

The first conference was held in Pugwash, a small fishing village in Nova Scotia, Canada, in July 1957. The village is the birthplace of American philanthropist, Cyrus Eaton, the man who funded that first conference. Twenty two participants descended on the little village from the US, the Soviet Union, Japan, the UK, Canada, Australia, Austria, China, France and Poland. Their debate centred around issues of nuclear hazards, the prevention of war and the responsibility of scientists to help establish international peace.

Since then there have been over 250 Pugwash meetings. The conferences, that continue to be the focal point of the organisation, now involve 150-200 participants.

Members of Pugwash, or Pugwashites as they are known, number nearly 4000. The basic rule for becoming a Pugwashite is that you participate in meetings as an individual. You may be invited to speak or you may apply if you have something to say. No organisations, governments or academies are represented at Pugwash meetings. Pugwashites are not all scientists either, they include military personnel, policy-makers, government advisors and lawyers. There is even a student arm of Pugwash.

The decision to keep Pugwash Conferences 'media-free' was taken early on for fear that the comments of eminent scientists may be misquoted or distorted in print. The Press were thought to have an inhibiting effect on the free discussion that is the hallmark of the Pugwash Conference. A media presence could also turn private debate into public display where discussions turn into speeches and little original thinking takes place.

But the lack of press attention brings with it the attendant problem of anonymity. However, Pugwash wishes us to know that it is not a secret society; on the contrary, it is very keen that the public know who they are, how they operate and what they discuss.

The sphere of influence that Pugwash has built over the years is second to none. It has performed a vital role in opening channels of communication between hostile states, and has been especially instrumental in improving East-West relations. Scientists and policy-makers have been brought together across political divides to find ways of reducing the nuclear threat.

Pugwash paved the way for the first steps towards disarmament in several key international agreements, including:

In 1995, Pugwash and its then president, Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat, jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize. It was awarded in recognition of their anti-nuclear arms efforts.

Now, more than ever, Pugwash is concerned with increasing public awareness of the nuclear threat. In May 2005, the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) revealed that deep fissures have opened up between members of the international community over the issue of nuclear weapons.

The original nuclear weapon countries (US, Russia, UK, France and China) are not only holding on to their weapons, some are also seeking to bump up their armouries. This leaves them open to charges of hypocrisy when they seek to deny access of nuclear technologies to other nations.

The 2005 NPT conference failed to produce any substantive agreement on nuclear policy. There has been a general lack of political will to live up to the original NPT goals, let alone to move them forward. The conference ended in deadlock and disaster.

Just before his death in August 2005, Pugwash president Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat, insisted: 'This disaster, for such it is, must spur us on to even greater efforts. The potential collapse of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, coupled with the very real dangers of a terrorist group accessing nuclear weapons, combine to place us all in peril.'

Rotblat was keen to remind us what the Russell-Einstein Manifesto had to say about the dangers of living in a nuclear shadow:

'People scarcely realize in imagination that the danger is to themselves and to their children and their grandchildren, and not only to a dimly apprehended humanity. They can scarcely bring themselves to grasp that they, individually, and those whom they love are in imminent danger of perishing agonizingly.'

Pugwash believe this statement to be as relevant today as it ever was in the Cold War.

The recent NPT disappointments and the environment of terror that we now live in has brought Pugwash to a new era.

In his final welcome address to the 2005 Pugwash international conference, Rotblat hinted at a greater involvement with the public:

'I am coming to believe that the time has come for Pugwash, while not for a moment relinquishing its scientific integrity, to lay the facts before the public. The end of the Cold War has led to public complacency, but in fact the dangers of a nuclear conflict are about as high as they have ever been.'