By Dr Christopher Watson, BPG Exec Committee
Hugh Beach, who died on 4 September 2019, was born on 23 May 1923 to Constance and William H Beach (who was latterly a Major-General & engineer-in-chief of the Indian Army).…
British Pugwash co-hosted with University of Nottingham Physics Department a mini-conference about ethical issues in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The conference was open to all ages and disciplines. The agenda is below.…
British Pugwash will screen the new, hour-long documentary – The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons – about the ideas and campaigners behind the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons.…
Warwick Pugwash Student Society (WPSS) welcomes Dr. Simon Jenkins for a discussion about recent discoveries in the field of biotechnology and gene editing, and the ethical concerns that arise around them.…
Topics covered in the British Pugwash Autumn 2019 Newsletter include:
Pugwash is pleased to announce that the 63rd Pugwash International Conference will take place from 1 – 5 March 2020, kindly hosted by the Government of the State of Qatar in Doha.…
Details have now been released of the fantastic ISODARCO Winter Course, organised by Italian Pugwash.
Full details and registration is online here: www.isodarco.it
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59th Winter Course of the International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflicts (ISODARCO)
Subject: Emerging Technologies, Evolving Nuclear Postures, and Deteriorating Norms: is the Global Nuclear Order Eroding?…
British Pugwash and Christian CND are co-hosting a media training day that will focus on how to produce compelling videos to promote a cause, explain an issue and reach new audiences.…
British Pugwash co-hosted with University of Nottingham Physics Department a mini-conference about ethical issues in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The conference was open to all ages and disciplines. The agenda is below.…
Item 1: Iran visit – International Pugwash visited Tehran (Iran) for a two-day meeting to discuss the JCPOA (the ‘Iran Deal’) – Meeting notes and photos here
Item 2: Killer robots – Professor John Finney, of the British Pugwash Trust, has written for Responsible Science about the risks of ‘killer robots’ and the UN’s COMEST Commissions work on the issue – here
Item 3: NPT update – International Pugwash President Sergio Duarte published a commentary about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – here…
Our Executive Committee member, Sebastian Brixey-Williams, spoke about some of his recent research on marine drones to a meeting organised by three different All Party Parliamentary Groups.
The presentation touched on some of his Pugwash-funded research on how trends in unmanned underwater vehicles might impact submarine-based nuclear weapons systems.…
The British Pugwash Group (BPG) is a membership organisation that brings together scientists and others concerned with international affairs and disarmament. Its Executive Committee for managing the organisation on a day-to-day basis and is responsible for BPG research projects and other types of work.…
Jana Wattenberg, the Student/Young Pugwash representative at Aberystwyth University, spoke at this year’s UK PONI Conference, the premier national forum for emerging experts in the nuclear policy community.
Her talk, on ‘The UK and the Ban Treaty’ was included in Session One on ‘UK Nuclear Policy and Practice’ (programme here)
Video below – Starts at 18:00 mins
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Key topics include: developments on the international scene, including US and Russia; Student / Young Pugwash activities; WMD Awareness – the podcast; Events; BPG development – eg. Business Development Plan; International Pugwash activities.…
On 26th April 2019, British Pugwash co-hosted a public lecture at SOAS, titled:
The Salisbury poisonings – one year after
Our guest speaker was Dr Richard Guthrie, a member of British Pugwash Executive Committee and an expert on chemical and biological weapons.…
This public lecture will cover some of the events during and after the Salisbury poisonings in March last year, from both political and technical perspectives.
Our guest speaker is Dr Richard Guthrie, a member of British Pugwash Executive Committee and an expert on chemical and biological weapons.…
Student/Young Pugwash (SYP) UK brings together students, researchers, practitioners and campaigners interested in international security and the interface between politics and science. We are a part of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, which uses the best social and natural science expertise to inform governments and the public about issues relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction – especially nuclear weapons – issues of war and peace, the environment and the social responsibility of scientists.…
Topics covered in the British Pugwash Spring 2019 Newsletter include:
On 15th March 2019, a conference was held at the German Federal Foreign Office titled ‘Capturing Technology. Rethinking Arms Control’.
The aim of the Conference was to promote a well-informed international dialogue on the nature and implications of the current technological trends and to discuss whether new solutions are needed to ensure that the global arms control architecture can effectively capture new technologies.…
Student / Young Pugwash UK held its fourth Annual Conference in February 2019, titled ‘Pugwash Peace & Disarmament Conference‘. It explored the prospects for arms control and disarmament over the coming years, with focuses on nuclear weapons and emerging technologies.…
From 27-29 January, a Pugwash delegation comprising the Secretary General, Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, Chair of British Pugwash Group, Peter Jenkins, and Pugwash Council Members Götz Neuneck, Alexander Nikitin, and Alexander Dynkin had a series of meetings in Moscow to discuss the future of arms control as part of a new Pugwash project.…
Three members of Student/Young Pugwash UK attended the prestigious International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflicts (ISODARCO), held in Trento, Italy from 6th to 13th January 2019.
ISODARCO is an annual, intensive course for scholars and practitioners, featuring high-profile lecturers from around the world.…
Student/Young Pugwash UK is collaborating with British Pugwash to host a major, one-day conference exploring the prospects for arms control and disarmament over the coming years.
The conference will be on 23rd February 2019 at SOAS, London.…
Blurb by Warwick Student/Young Pugwash:
A nuclear storm gathers over the Middle East.
Reckless American foreign policy has almost certainly doomed the Iran Nuclear Deal, the only instrument standing between Iran and the acquisition of the deadliest device to have ever existed.…
UCL Diplomacy in Action society will be hosting Professor John Finney, a physicist and member of British Pugwash, will be presenting the talk: “Autonomous Weapons: should cognitive machines be allowed to kill?”.…
In August 2017, senior and youth members of International Pugwash met in Astana, Kazakhstan, for the 62nd Pugwash Conference – ‘Confronting New Nuclear Dangers’ (multimedia here).
Russian Pugwash has recently published a selection of papers from the conference, in their new publication ‘Global and regional security issues and prospects for cooperation’.…
On 6th December, Pugwashite Professor John Finney (Physics, UCL) spoke to Physics students at University of Nottingham about some of the complex ethical and legal questions raised by emerging technologies, particularly remotely-controlled and autonomous vehicles (including weapons systems).…
On 21st November, British Pugwash was delighted to co-organise with the Polish Embassy UK the Sir Joseph Rotblat Memorial Lecture. This year’s topic was:
‘Joseph Rotblat and the Cold War Nuclear Confrontation: Lessons for Today’
Our guest speaker was Sir Rodric Braithwaite GCMG.…
Student/Young Pugwash UK is collaborating with British Pugwash to host a major, one-day conference exploring the prospects for arms control and disarmament over the coming years.
The conference will be on 23rd February 2019 at SOAS, London.…
British Pugwash (BP) is a membership organisation for scientists, social scientists, practitioners and others interested in peace, disarmament and other issues with scientific or technical aspects. Benefits of membership include:
For background on BP activity, read:
British Pugwash Annual Report 2017
The fee for senior members of British Pugwash is £25 per year but this has been reduced to £5 per year for people under 30 years old.…
8th October, 6pm – 7pm, OC0.01 (The Oculus, University of Warwick)
Roundtable discussion: Outer space and society
Organised by: Warwick SYP
23rd October, 6:00-7:30. MS.04 (Maths & Stats, University of Warwick)
How to win a Nobel Peace Prize?…
Topics covered in the British Pugwash Late 2018 Newsletter include:
Over the next twelve months, Student/Young Pugwash UK will be publishing ideas and research from our members about the risks and opportunities of emerging technologies.
Our first paper is a think piece by Dávid Almási, an undergraduate at University of Warwick, who considers whether changes in mass communication technologies will affect how governments justify but also respond to the possession and use of Weapons of Mass Destruction.…
Key topics include: developments on the international scene, including US and Russia; Trident: emerging technologies; the NPT RevCon and the Disarmament Institute (BRINDI); science and ethics: the ethics of modern robotics; energy policy and climate change; Student / Young Pugwash activities; events in 2017
British Pugwash was the host of a major, public awareness campaign for over 10 years – WMD Awareness – which educated the public and politicians about the reality of nuclear (and other) weapons.…
Student / Young Pugwash UK held its third Annual Conference in March 2018, titled ‘Warwick Peace Conference‘.
The conference brought in over 70 participants, including young researchers, practitioners and students from across the world.…
Members of British Pugwash were delighted to participate in a ceremony on 6th November 2017, in which a plaque honouring Sir Joseph Rotblat was unveiled on the corner of Bury Place and Great Russell Street, London (WCIB 3BJ).…
