The Pugwash Record
Because of the private, unofficial and informal manner in which Pugwash conferences, symposia and workshops are conducted, it is difficult to measure precisely to what extent they have contributed to the solution to of the vast and complex problem on their agenda. It is clear, however, that Pugwash has successed in providing an excellent channel of communication between scientist of different social and political views, for discussing highly controversial matters, often of a military or political nature, and finding a common approach based upon scientific and technological innovation and has direct attention to them at an early stage. In some cases, conclusion drawn from meetings are known to have had a direct influence on the decision-making process of governments involved in actual or potential conflicts, particularly with relation to arms control and disarmament. Some examples follow of Pugwash contributions.
The Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Nuclear Weapons Free Zones (NWFZ)
Strategic Arms Limitation
Biological Warfare Convention: Chemical Warfare Treaty
European Security
Environment Threats
Problems of Developing Countries
The Challenge Continues
A ban on nuclear test is an essential part of any programme aimed at the control and reduction of nuclear weapons and at non-proliferation. The detailed discussions that Pugwash conducted on problems associated with nuclear explosions in the atmosphere and underground, and in particular on methods of verification and inspection, where useful with respect to the Partial Test-Ban Treaty of 1963. For example, the exploration of possibilities for seismic recording stations emphasized the need for scientists to be brought into negotiations. A comprehensive test ben treaty remains an important goal of Pugwash.
Despite its shortcoming the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 is the first international agreement which provides a legal obligation, and not merely a moral commitment, to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. It is also a first step towards achieving general and complete disarmament, the ultimate aim of Pugwash.
The groundwork for such a Treaty was discussed at a Pugwash meeting as early as 1958. At later meetings the main provisions covering the obligations of both nuclear and non-nuclear nations were formulated. Subsequent discussion dealt with the technical and political aspects of the Treaty, with the controls and safeguards necessary to provide reasonable assurance of compliance by all Parties, as well as with arrangements for ensuring peaceful uses of atomic energy. These analyses proved essentially correct and were helpful in achieving the NPT and in its operation.
Pugwash has long advocated the creation of nuclear-weapons-free-zones such as those provided in the Tlatelolco Treaty for Latin America and the Rarotonga Treaty for the South Pacific.
Pugwash has formulated substantial inputs for possible NWFZ treaties in this areas and elsewhere, e.g. Central Europe and the Middle East, as steps towards the establishment of an nuclear-weapons-free world.
Pugwash recognized from the beginning the value of bilateral USA-URSS talks on this subject (SALT) as an essential contribution to nuclear arms control and as a stimulant for other ares of disarmament. Several Pugwash meetings centered on critical issues, such as limitations in the development of anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs); and there is a good reason to believe that Pugwash discussion on anti-missiles defences influenced the policy decisions which culminated in their ban, as incorporated into the SALT-1 agreement and the Anti-Ballistic Missiles Treaty of 1972.
Pugwash took early cognizance odd -and opposed- research and developments of other destabilizing weapon system which would further stimulate the arms race, such as Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles (MIRV), anti-satellite weapons (ASAT), cruise missiles, and the weaponization of outer space.
Among the measures for crisis prevention and management, proposed and analyzed by Pugwash, was space surveillance satellites for peace-keeping purpose under the aegis of United Nations.
The Convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons, and on their destruction the first significant disarmament agreement in the post-war period - was greatly facilitated by Pugwash discussion and studies started in 1959. The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention in 1971 and it came in force in 1972. The preparatory work carried out partly in cooperation with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in the establishment of which Pugwash played an important part, covered all essential aspects of the problem.
Pugwash continue to work intensively towards the conclusion of similar treaty concerning chemical weapons. In the series of the workshops of the Study Group on Chemical Warfare, Pugwash brought in technical experts. The series led in early 1987 to the first visit of Western chemical weapons specialists to an Eastern European chemical production complex . Pugwash contacts were also instrumental in setting up the first access by a US expert to the medical records associated with the disputed 1979 anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk.
A great amount of Pugwash time and effort, presaging the Helsinki Final Act, was devoted to short and long-term measures likely to contribute to the solution of European Security problems: the establishment of relations between the two Germanies; nuclear and chemical weapons-free zones in Europe; deep reductions of military forces and weapons of the two military blocks, and their eventual dissolution; and increased cultural and economic cooperation.
A particularly intensive effort has been dedicated to the problem of intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) in Europe and their relation to general strategic nuclear forces. There is reason to believe that the series of workshops of the Study Group on Nuclear forces exerted an influence on official policy which culminated in the INF Treaty of 1987.
Pugwash played a pioneering role in developing concepts such as "non-offensive defence" for restructuring conventional forces and doctrines into modes less suitable for attack. The influence of this ideas on decision makers is, for instance, shown by an exchange of letters among some participants in this series of Pugwash meetings and President Gorbachev. And indeed this ideas have led to a drastic change in the strategic and deployment policies in Europe, and have provided the basis for the reduction and reconstructuring of military forces in Europe, negotiated in Vienna.
Pugwash scientists are aware of the special responsibility they have in helping to bridge the ever-widening gap of socio-economic development between industrializated and developing countries. The gap constitutes a major obstacle to a disarmament and to the establishment of an international security system, as it increases tension and instability, particularly in the developing countries.
A Pugwash Symposium in Tanzania, June 1975, dealt with the role of self reliance in alternative strategies for development. In 1978, workshop in India and Morocco formulated "Guidelines for International Scientific Collaboration for Development" to promote those aspects of greatest benefit to developing countries and to assuage past abuses by industrialized nations. These guidelines have influenced practices in the United Nations and its specialized agencies, and in other international agencies.
Pugwash also played a role in the establishment of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, and the International Foundation for Science in Sweden which helps developing countries.
A Code of Conduct on the transfer of Technology came out of a study by working group of 1974. The Code was accepted as a basis for discussion and negotiation by the United Nations, but no agreement has yet been reached; Pugwash is now trying to overcome the few remaining obstacles.
Pugwash has also been concerned with the problems of the arms trade and debt in the developing countries. Meetings in Lima, Peru in 1987, and in Cracow, Poland, 1n 1990, were concerned with the problem of foreign debts and resultant international instabilities.
The reduction of the serious regional and global environmental threats depends to a large extent on achieving increases in the efficiency of the use of energy. Pugwash has always been concerned with the problem of energy, particularly of nuclear energy; the possible misuse of nuclear technology for military purposes, and the role of energy of alleviating poverty in developing countries. Starting in 1968, this topics were discussed in Symposia and Annual Conferences, and have provided the groundwork for a number of initiatives. More recently, the general problem of environmental pollution was put in the Pugwash agenda, particularly relating to the ways in which growing problems of environmental disruption, underdevelopment in the South, and overconsumption in the North, link the interest of people everywhere and interact with the problem of avoiding war. An expression of these interests of Pugwash is in the public declaration of the Pugwash Council "Ensuring the survival of Civilization" issued in Dagomys, USSR in 1988.
Some of the advance cited above have not been made, of course, through Pugwash effort alone. Many organization operate at the international level to promote peace. The distinctive characteristic of Pugwash, however, has been its continuity (over 30 years) involving the consistent partecipation of high level and influential scentist and other specilists from all parts of the globe and differing political background.
When Pugwash began in 1957 it provided the only channe of communication on the issues of the nuclear threath and global security between the East and the West. Subsequent trends of general improving East-West relations, and the emergence of a much wider array of unofficial channels of communication, have somewhat reduced Pugwash's visibility while providing alternative pathways to similar ends. But Pugwash meetings have continued throgh the seventies and the eighties to play an important role in bringing together key analysts and and policy advisors for sustained, in-depth discussions of the crucial arms-control isuues of the day: nuclear forces, chemical weaponry, space weapons, conventional force reductions and recostructuring, and crisis control in the Third World, among others.
The dramatic changes, that have been recently taken place, particularly in Eastern Europe, have been heralded as the end of the cold war. No doubt the political climate is now much more relaxed, but the objectives of Pugwash are still far from being achieved. Very little progress has yet been made in actually reducing the obscenely excessive nuclear arsenal. There is still the widespread belief that peace in Europe has been kept in by the nuclear deterrent and therefore nuclear weapons must be retained. Military research establishments are still busy inventing new generations of weapons, while very little is being done to convert military industries to peacefull production. There is still the danger of military confrontation in several regions of the world, notably in the Middle East, with states acquiring the ballistic missiles technologies for delivery of weapons, and ammassing chemical weapons as a substitute for atom bombs, as well as attemping to aquire nuclear weapons.!
The growing poverty of the countr
ies in the Third World is a continuing source of conflinct and war. The danger to the environment is increasing. Clearly, Pugwash still has a vital role to play in providing a forum in which all these issues can be discussed in the scientific spirit of objectivity and solution sought on a global scale.
Albert Einstein put his greatest hopes for a rational, peacefull and just world on the universality of science and the bonds of common understanding which bind scientists together. Scientists and scholar are, and will remain, in a special position to understand and communicate with each other across national and political boundaries, and to transmit truths as far as man comprehend them. Only thus can we hope to withstandin the assault of those forces which endanger mankind. Pugwash will continue to fulfil this unique role.
This page was constructed by Giorgio Amati on the behalf of the Rome Pugwash Office.