This project, started in 2009 with funds from the legacy of the late Professor John Ziman FRS, aims to develop the concept of a proposed UK Disarmament Institute.
First convened in 2008, this group of experts has continued to meet regularly to coordinate and maintain effective and positive working links with parliamentarians across the political spectrum on UK nuclear weapons issues, in particular in relation to the renewal of the UK's Trident nuclear weapons system.
Two lines of work, on the ethics of military robotics and the potential development of autonomous weapons, have developed since 2013. These issues are highly relevant to Pugwash's concern with ethical and humanitarian constraints on the conduct of warfare.
In October 2011, a British Pugwash working group launched a project to provide information in support of a public debate on how to balance the UK’s supply of and demand for energy between now and 2050, without reneging on the government’s commitment to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases by 80 per cent by 2050.
Pugwash Conferences on Science and International Affairs has a long and distinguished history of bringing together all sides in pursuit of disarmament, elimination of weapons of mass destruction and the promotion of peaceful settlement of international disputes. Pugwash and its most eminent spokesperson, Joseph Rotblat, jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
At the Annual Conference of the British Society for the History of Science, Exeter, British Pugwash organised a session on 'Rotblat – a nuclear physicist in the public eye 1944-1957'.
