Carl Djerassi describes his experiences at Pugwash Conferences

I just came across an interesting video clip of chemist Carl Djerassi. It is one of 3 short videos in which he discusses his involvement in Pugwash. I like this clip in particular because it gives the flavor of participating in Pugwash Conferences. He shares his first-hand experience with dialogue across divides that is the cornerstone of Pugwash meetings.

He says he presented at the 1969 Pugwash Conference in Sochi what he considered to be one of his most important papers on birth control. Djerassi also reflects on getting tear gassed at a Pugwash meeting in Warsaw...

Click on this link here to go to the video clip.

ABM Treaty

In most cases it is very difficult to pinpoint definitely the impact Pugwash has had. By design, the idea has always been to create space where influential people from diverse perspectives can gather. They would then, in their individual capacities, seek to influence policy in their home countries.

Metta Spencer highlights one instructive example regarding Pugwash and the ABM Treaty, in an excellent article called "Political Scientists":

"Millionshchikov ... noted that he had privately come around to the anti-ABM position in 1964 during a Pugwash meeting ... By the time of the Pugwash Conference in Sochi in October 1969 ... Millionshchikov definitely said he opposed ABM systems. ... A month after the Pugwash meeting in Sochi, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks began in Helsinki. One outcome was the ABM Treaty of 1972..."

See Metta Spencer, "Political Scientists", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/Aug 1995, Vol 51, No 4, p. 62.

Frisbee Diplomacy

This article, "Good Guys All", from Time Magazine, 1969, shows how the atmosphere at Pugwash Conferences helped people find their common humanity across political and geographic divides.

"In the patio behind the Orante Intourist Hotel at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, an American scholar and a leading Soviet physicist were skimming a Frisbee at each other. The Russian, Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov, had approached the game hesitantly, perhaps because the American. Columbia University's Marshall Shulman, a specialist in Russian affairs, had demonstrated such skill. But soon Millionshchikov was lunging enthusiastically after the elusive plastic saucer. ..."

Please post comments if you have perspectives on the Sochi meeting.