New Biography of Joseph Rotblat

Keeper of the Nuclear Conscience: The Life and Work of Joseph Rotblat

By Andrew Brown. Oxford University Press; 347 pages

This comprehensive biography of Joseph Rotblat has been reviewed by several major publications, including The Economist, Nature (Sir Martin Rees),  New Scientist (Edwin Lyman), The Lancet (Andrew Robinson), and the Wall Street Journal, Times Higher Education, History Today, among other publications.  Check it out!

First Call for Papers: Workshop

Writing Pugwash Histories.
From Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Kabul and Gaza

Sponsored by: Institute for Contemporary History, University of Vienna, and Arbeitskreis Historische Friedensforschung (AKHF)
Conveners: Silke Fengler (University of Vienna), Alison Kraft (Egenis, University of Exeter), Holger Nehring (University of Sheffield, AKHF), and Carola Sachse (University of Vienna)
Keynote speaker: Matthew Evangelista (Cornell University)
In cooperation with: Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (contact: Sandra Ionno Butcher), Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler (VDW, contact: Reiner Braun)

Dates: 10–12 May, 2012
Venue: University of Vienna
Conference language: English
Deadline for proposals (one page plus brief CV): 31 October, 2011

For nuclear physicists, chemists and technicians, the hundreds of thousands of civilian victims of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki cast a painfully sharp light on the military and biopolitical consequences of their work during the Second World War. In the nuclear arms race between the Cold War superpowers, many nuclear scientists felt able, justified and indeed called upon to campaign against the continued development and deployment of nuclear weapons. Those scientists included some who had themselves helped to develop the atom bomb.

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

Among the various national and transnational groupings working against nuclear war, the Pugwash movement stands out. Even today, it evokes the July 1955 manifesto that was drafted by Bertrand Russell and co-signed by Albert Einstein just before his death. The movement took its name from the location of its first meeting, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia in summer 1957. So far, 59 “Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs” and numerous workshops have been held in various regions of the world. From the beginning, the movement aimed to bring together eminent scientists, scholars, politicians, diplomats and government advisers across the hostile frontiers of the Cold War. The “Pugwashites” wanted to go beyond the exchange of diplomatic notes or military force, instead using the shared language of science to evaluate the risks of nuclear armament, develop solutions to regional conflicts and exert influence on national governments with the goal of promoting world peace.

The themes addressed by the Pugwash conferences have diversified to reflect the changing problems facing international politics – climate change; crises of energy, food and natural resources. Since the movement was founded its membership structure has also changed, as have the scientific disciplines and professions of its members, its objectives, methods and modes of cooperation, and its role within the debates of global politics.

Pugwash movement: History or histories

To date, the history of the Pugwash movement has been told largely through chronological accounts, memoirs and partial studies of national Pugwash groups. Writing a comprehensive history of the movement is perhaps not possible at the present time. On the one hand, the informal structure of the Pugwash movement means it is known only to a relatively small audience, and has attracted little attention from historians even since the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the movement and its secretary general, Joseph Rotblat, in 1995. On the other, although the Pugwash movement has an international presence, it is embedded in very different scientific, social and political configurations in different countries and regions. As a result, it seems neither possible nor desirable to write a single, unified narrative of the movement's peace-policy successes and global political significance.

Instead, what we need are multi-faceted histories written from a range of distinct national and regional perspectives. Only in this way will historians be able to fully understand the distinctive character of the Pugwash movement in the long term, its survival through time and across such profound political changes and its contributions to international dialogue. From its inception, Pugwash oscillated between an elitist claim to universal scientific expertise, links with transnational movements for peace and against nuclear weapons, and integration into the local political establishments. It therefore offers an outstanding opportunity to consider national and international connections between science and politics, which became increasingly complex during the second half of the twentieth century. Analysing these interrelations from a transnational perspective necessitates a large, cooperative network of historians, able to take a range of different thematic and regional approaches.

Objectives of the workshop

The wide and diverse literature on the Cold War by political historians, historians of science and historians of diplomacy has hitherto yielded only a small number of informative studies of the Pugwash movement (these include Evangelista 1999; Kubbig 2004; Butcher 2005; Braun 2007). The proposed workshop intends to form a springboard for a more broadly based engagement with the topic. Our objectives include:
- to exchange information regarding existing research and ongoing projects relating to the history of the Pugwash movement in various different countries,
- using completed, current and planned research projects as a point of entry, to discuss history of science and political history dimensions of the Pugwash movement,
- to examine methodological approaches, the state of documentation and questions around archival sources relevant to Pugwash.

Who is invited?

We invite proposals from scholars in the history of science, social and political history, and related disciplines. You should either have worked directly on the history of the Pugwash movement or addressed it in the course of other research. Proposals related to ongoing PhD or postdoctoral projects are particularly welcome.

Please submit a one-page proposal and brief CV in English to office_sachse.zeitgeschichte@univie.ac.at by 31 October, 2011. We will notify selected participants in November 2011. Papers of no more than 3,500 words must be submitted, in English, by 31 March, 2012.

Funding is still pending. We hope to be able to cover travel costs for up to ten participants (max. € 400 each).

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Carola Sachse
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Universität Wien
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 1
A-1090 Vienna
carola.sachse@univie.ac.at

Dr. Silke Fengler
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Universität Wien
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 1
A-1090 Vienna
silke.fengler@univie.ac.at

Dr. Alison Kraft
ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis)
University of Exeter
Byrne House, St. Germans Road
Exeter
EX4 4PJ
alison.kraft@nottingham.ac.uk

Office:

Martina Schmied
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Universität Wien
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 1
A-1090 Vienna
office_sachse.zeitgeschichte@univie.ac.at

Rotblat British Library Tapes Now Online

The British Library has made available online nearly 20 hours of biographical interviews with Joseph Rotblat, taped in 1999. This is the closest Rotblat came to an autobiography and it is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in his life or the history of Pugwash.

There is a rough index of the interviews available here.

Nuclear Realities c. 1957

The National Security Archive has just made available a video, "The Power of Decision," produced in 1956-57, which they say "may be the first (and perhaps the only) U.S. government film depicting the Cold War nightmare of a US-Soviet nuclear conflict."

This is the year that planning was underway for the first Pugwash Conference. I am posting this video since it gives a sense of the urgency of the times, and vividly demonstrates the nuclear dangers that were then foremost in the minds of many. (Many of these dangers still exist today, though that is a subject for another post...)

Here is a 4 minute clip from The National Security Archives You Tube Channel:



The full film is available on the National Security Archives website, here.

Rotblat as viewed by a grad student

Maximilian Puelma Touzel, a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute, Göttingen, Germany, has published an article featuring impressions on watching Jo Rotblat's story in the Strangest Dream film by the Canadian National Film Board in the recent issue of Peace magazine. This issue of the magazine focuses on "Politics and the Nobel Peace Prize."

I am always pleased when a student becomes interested in the history of the nuclear age, and I particularly welcome the perspective Touzel takes in this piece(though I wish it had a different title). A very positive way to start the new year:

"Looking back at Rotblat’s life, how does one square the amazing anti-nuclear achievements of this single person with the apocalyptic potential of the science to which he dedicated himself? It comes down to responsibility. ... Rotblat has taught us that, if scientists desire peace, they must prepare for it."

Maximilian Puelma Touzel, "Joseph Rotblat is Dead: Who Will Save the World Now?", Peace Magazine, Jan-March 2011, p. 24.

Rotblat-a leader with a 'powerful vision'

Pugwash founder and former President Joseph Rotblat is featured on the GiANT Impact website for global business leaders, as a leader who "finished strong" and who had a powerful vision to fulfill. So true. He worked tirelessly to the end of his days to try to create conditions for a world without nuclear weapons.

I found this site cheering on a day when the New York Times has run a story (available here) about the Obama Administration's revision to guidance on what people should do in the event of a nuclear explosion. Rotblat, when asked what one should do in the event of a nuclear explosion, famously said, "Run toward it."

Here is a photo of Prof at the 1999 Student Pugwash USA 20th anniversary international conference. In the later years of his life he prioritized speaking with student and young people.

Pugwashites Mentioned at DC Symposium on Science and Nuclear Disarmament

I just came across this Physics Today blog post by Charles Day, in which he mentions that at a recent AAAS/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science meeting, discussion highlighted several Pugwashites (Rotblat, Konuma, Yukawa, Tomonaga, Perkovich) and the impact of scientists on nuclear disarmament. Interesting mention is made by Konuma that two early Japanese Pugwashites were among the first to say that possession of nuclear weapons by some states is intrinsically unstable and can lead to an arms race.

Russian Quest for Peace & Democracy

Canadian Pugwashite Metta Spencer has published a new book, The Russian Quest for Peace, which is based on decades of research and interviews. Her website contains many photos and interview transcripts, including from Pugwashites. I will post more later when I have a chance to absorb some of this fantastic material.

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.

Strangest Dream Nominated for Gemini Award

UPDATE:
Pugwash congratulates Eric Bednarski and Barry Cowling,
who received the prestigious Gemini Award!! A news clip is available here.

The Strangest Dream, by the National Film Board of Canada, has been nominated for a Gemini Award, Canada's highest award for films, in the best writing for a documentary category. Congrats go to Eric Bednarski and Barry Cowling for this honor. We will keep our fingers crossed for the November decision. The Strangest Dream provides a thoughtful and creative introduction to Pugwash, and provides a wonderful overview of the life of Jo Rotblat.

The film is now available online in its entirety for for free.

You can watch it on your computer in full screen format if you click on the rectangle in the lower right for "toggle to full screen." Here are some images from the December 2008 European launch of the film at the BAFTA theatre in London. (Sandy Butcher and Director E. Bednarski; Producer Kent Martin, Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala, E. Bednarski, and British Pugwash Chair John Finney)