This week, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) will convene the first meeting of an interdisciplinary group of experts to consider new strategies to reduce reliance on nuclear weapons and less risky approaches to global security. The group will bring a unique approach to the challenge by convening specialists in behavioral psychology, change theory, decision-making, social movements and communication, as well as experts in the nuclear field and members of frontline communities impacted by nuclear weapons production.
“After decades of progress in reducing the threat of nuclear use, the current trendlines are sharply negative,” said Stephen Young, associate director for government affairs in the Global Security Program at UCS. “Arms control is hanging by a thread, while many countries expand or update their nuclear arsenals. It’s time for a fundamental rethink of our approach to reducing and eliminating the nuclear threat. This group will seek to create strategic principles toward that end.”
Over the next 18 months, the study group will explore:
- what drives policy maker and military decision-making about nuclear weapons and what might influence those decisions;
- what the basis for U.S. and global security could be if nuclear deterrence is eliminated or drastically reduced; and
- what research suggests about potential approaches to cultural and political change on nuclear deterrence.
The group will recommend approaches to a move away from continued reliance on nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence as the basis for security, as well as other approaches that would be most effective in reducing the risk of nuclear war.
The study group is comprised of:
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Dr. Anne Harrington, Study Group Chair, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations, Cardiff University; Anne is a co-founder of HighlyNRiched, an online platform for teaching and mentoring on nuclear issues. She studies the political value of nuclear weapons.
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Professor Jennifer Earl, Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware; Jenn studies activism and digital and social media, and social movement outcomes.
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Professor Baruch Fischhoff, Howard Heinz University Professor, Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology; Baruch studies decision-making and risk assessment.
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Ravi Garla, Advocacy and Narrative Consultant, Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). An issue advocacy expert in NTI's Critical Mass Project, which focuses on researching drivers of public opinion an campaigns such as #MakeNukesHistory, leveraging attention around "Oppenheimer."
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Dr. Rebecca Eleanor Johnson, founder and director, Acronym Institute and founding co-chair of the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
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Dr. Patricia Lewis, a physicist and former director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR); current co-chair of the scientific advisory committee for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
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Professor David Meyer, Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Planning, Policy, and Design, UC-Irvine who studies social movements, public policy, peace & war, and social change, with a long-time focus on the nuclear disarmament movement.
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Jasmine Owens is a nuclear weapons abolitionist, writer, and organizer who has written extensively about the need for an intersectional nuclear abolition movement. Her experiences as a nuclear weapons abolitionist informed her decision to become a trained death doula.
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Dr. Daniel R. Post, political scientist at the US Naval War College, a Navy commander who worked at Strategic Command as a Nuclear Strike Advisor, studies nuclear strategy and policy, escalation dynamics, decision making, and wargaming.
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Anna Rondon is the executive director of the New Mexico Social Justice Equity Institute, a member of the Kinya’aa’aanii Clan in the Navajo Nation and was previously involved in the Navajo Birth Cohort Study.
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Dr. Paul Slovic, a psychologist at University of Oregon who studies decision-making, empathy, and nuclear use, and served on the recent National Academy of Sciences panel assessing the risks of nuclear war.
An advisory board that will contribute to and review the project’s work includes Dr. Matthew Bunn, Harvard University; Dr. Sweta Chakraborty, We Don’t Have Time North America; Dr. Hassan Elbahtimy, King's College London; Dr. Steve Fetter, University of Maryland; Beatrice Fihn, Lex International; Dr. Dana R. Fisher, American University; Dr. Rebecca Davis Gibbons, University of Southern Maine; Stefan Flothmann, Mindworks Lab; Dr. Joshua Green, Harvard University; Dr. Rose McDermott, Brown University; and Jessica Sleight, JMS Strategies.