Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Category: Peace

  • Are We in for Another Increase in Military Spending?

    At the present time, an increase in U.S. military spending seems as superfluous as a third leg.  The United States, armed with the latest in advanced weaponry, has more military might than any other nation in world history.  Moreover, it has begun a $1 trillion program to refurbish its entire nuclear weapons complex.  America’s major military rivals, China and Russia, spend only a small fraction of what the United States does on its armed forces―in China’s case about a third and in Russia’s case about a ninth.  Furthermore, the economic outlay necessary to maintain this vast U.S. military force constitutes a very significant burden.  In fiscal 2015, U.S. military spending ($598.5 billion) accounted for 54 percent of the U.S. government’s discretionary spending.

    Certainly most Americans are not clamoring for heightened investments in war and war preparations.  According to a Gallup poll conducted in February 2016, only 37 percent of respondents said the U.S. government spent too little “for national defense and military purposes,” compared to 59 percent who said it spent too much (32 percent) or about the right amount (27 percent).

    These findings were corroborated by a Pew Research Center survey in April 2016, which reported that 35 percent of American respondents favored increasing U.S. military spending, 24 percent favored decreasing it, and 40 percent favored keeping it the same.  Although these latest figures show a rise in support for increasing military spending since 2013, this occurred mostly among Republicans.  Indeed, the gap in support for higher military spending between Republicans and Democrats, which stood at 25 percentage points in 2013, rose to 41 points by 2016.

    Actually, it appears that, when Americans are given the facts about U.S. military spending, a substantial majority of them favor reducing it.  Between December 2015 and February 2016, the nonpartisan Voice of the People, affiliated with the University of Maryland, provided a sample of 7,126 registered voters with information on the current U.S. military budget, as well as leading arguments for and against it.  The arguments were vetted for accuracy by staff members of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees on defense.  Then, when respondents were asked their opinion about what should be done, 61 percent said they thought U.S. military spending should be reduced.  The biggest cuts they championed were in spending for nuclear weapons and missile defense systems.

    When it comes to this year’s presumptive Presidential candidates, however, quite a different picture emerges.  The Republican nominee, Donald Trump, though bragging about building “a military that’s gonna be much stronger than it is right now,” has on occasion called for reducing military expenditures.  On the other hand, his extraordinarily aggressive foreign policy positions have led defense contractors to conclude that, with Trump in the White House, they can look forward to sharp increases in U.S. military spending.  Indeed, insisting that U.S. military power has shrunk to a pitiful level under President Obama, he has promised that, under his presidency, it would be “funded beautifully.”  In March 2016, when Trump appeared on Fox News, he made that commitment more explicit by promising to increase military spending.

    Given the considerably more dovish orientation of the Democratic electorate, one would expect Hillary Clinton to stake out a position more opposed to a military buildup.  But, thus far, she has been remarkably cagey about this issue.  In September 2015, addressing a campaign meeting in New Hampshire, Clinton called for the creation of a high-level commission to examine U.S. military spending.  But whether the appointment of such a commission augurs increases or decreases remains unclear.  Meanwhile, her rather hawkish foreign policy record has convinced observers that she will support a military weapons buildup.  The same conclusion can be drawn from the “National Security” section of her campaign website, which declares:  “As president, she’ll ensure the United States maintains the best-trained, best-equipped, and strongest military the world has ever known.”

    Although the big defense contractors generally regard Clinton, like Trump, as a safe bet, they exercise even greater influence in Congress, where they pour substantially larger amounts of money into the campaign coffers of friendly U.S. Senators and Representatives.  Thus, even when a President doesn’t back a particular weapons system, they can usually count on Congress to fund it.  As a Wall Street publication recently crowed:  “No matter who wins the White House this fall, one thing is clear:  Defense spending will climb.”

    Will it?  Probably so, unless public pressure can convince a new administration in Washington to adopt a less militarized approach to national and international security.

    Dr. Lawrence Wittner (http://www.lawrenceswittner.com) is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY/Albany.  His latest book is a satirical novel about university corporatization and rebellion, What’s Going On at UAardvark? He is also a NAPF Associate.

  • To Be or Not to Be with the Brexit Turmoil

    “To guarantee peace, there is a remedy which would in a few years make all Europe free and happy. It is to re-create the European family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe.” — Winston Churchill, 1946

    Many questions have been brought to the forefront after witnessing the unprecedented event of the UK voting to separate from the EU. Why do humans destroy what strengthens us, to kill what we love and obliterate everything that we have built? Why would a country like the UK make a decision that could lead to their own destruction? Why is this xenophobic enthusiasm embraced by the masses instead of looking for solutions? Through culture we can solve the basic problems of coexistence, one of which is the individual’s relationship with the community, or in this case, a Nation with fellow Nations.

    We know that our identity depends on the sense of belonging to a people, to a religion, to a culture. But what if that culture becomes corrupt? What if that society becomes oblivious? How do you escape the social pressure without falling into ethical autism? Must we evaluate cultures, subject societies to a “test of intelligence”?

    We are a species that likes to create conflict because we let our decision-making be made by the least rational side of our brain. We like to live in a world of hopes and dreams. We believe that reality, when it doesn’t suit our wishes, should be dynamited, although that explosion could cost us the loss of limbs. And when reality does suit our wishes, it is also worthy of being dynamited, because we are bored, we want more, “something else”, always on the path of self-destruction. The engine is the thirst for power, vanity and selfishness of a few, and the need to take advantage of the rest of the people. Unfortunately, most of the time we end up taking collective decisions that are not rational. In the case of the UK vote, the withdrawal was set in motion even though we had built institutions and tools to protect us from our foolishness. Destruction is inevitable because we can not bear to be our own vigilantes, we are converted into oppressors, reaching the point where our instinct of “agents of change” overwhelm us. The most powerful motivation to lead societies to self-destruction is hate speech, and is always a hidden revenge.

    Today, millions of Britons – mostly young – are disappointed and regret the result of seeing that they were able to burn down their own house. They were unsuited to understand that significant changes are the product of reason, strategy, intelligence, planning and cooperation; not the cave man tendency to believe that everything works out with brutality, anger and the use of force. We must accept that we are not the most advanced or the most intelligent beings on Earth. What other species destroys everything in its path, including all the cultural heritage built through centuries and millennia? What other species periodically engage in terrible wars, destroying, rebuilding and destroying on a vicious cycle?

    Ruben. D Arvizu is Director for Latin America of NAPF, Director General for Latin America of Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society and Ambassador Global Cities Covenant on Climate.

  • Report to the UN Secretary-General on NAPF Disarmament Education Activities

    Report to UN Secretary-General on NAPF
    Disarmament Education Activities: July 2014 – June 2016

    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) has been educating people in the United States and around the world about the urgent need for the abolition of nuclear weapons since 1982. Based in Santa Barbara, California, the Foundation’s mission is to educate and advocate for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons, and to empower peace leaders.

    The following document was submitted to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It will make up a portion of the “Report of the Secretary-General to the 71st Session of the General Assembly on the Implementation of the Recommendations of the 2002 UN Study on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education.”

    Websites

    www.wagingpeace.org

    NAPF’s primary website, www.wagingpeace.org, serves as an educational and advocacy tool for the general public concerned about nuclear weapons issues. Between July 2014-June 2016, there were over 750,000 unique visitors to the site. The Waging Peace site covers current nuclear weapons policy and other relevant issues of global security. It includes information about the Foundation’s activities and offers visitors the opportunity to participate in online advocacy and activism. The site additionally offers a unique archive section containing thousands of articles and essays on issues ranging from nuclear weapons policy to international law and youth activism.

    www.nuclearfiles.org

    The Foundation’s educational website, www.nuclearfiles.org, details a comprehensive history of the Nuclear Age. It is regularly updated and expanded. By providing background information, an extensive timeline, access to primary documents and analysis, this site is one of the preeminent online educational resources in the field. During this reporting period, there were 550,000 unique visitors to the Nuclear Files site.

    www.nuclearzero.org

    The Nuclear Zero website, www.nuclearzero.org, keeps the public up to date with hot off-the-press news developments surrounding the nuclear disarmament lawsuits filed in April 2014 by the Republic of the Marshall Islands against all nine nuclear-armed nations at the International Court of Justice and against the United States in U.S. Federal Court. By providing consistent access to information regarding the lawsuits, the site supports the Marshall Islands in holding nuclear weapons states accountable by keeping the public informed. A petition on the site in support of the RMI lawsuits has gathered over five million signatures.

    Social Networking

    The Foundation actively engages with members of the public through the online social networking sites Facebook (www.facebook.com/wagingpeace), YouTube (www.youtube.com/nuclearagepeace), and Twitter (www.twitter.com/napf). Through targeted use of these tools, the Foundation has been able to reach new audiences with its educational and inspirational material.

    Publications

    Why Our World Needs Peace Literacy
    Informational Booklet

    NAPF Peace Leadership Director Paul K. Chappell wrote this informational booklet about the seven forms of peace literacy. Peace literacy is the next step in the development of our global civilization because of its necessity in an interconnected world where the fate of every nation is tied to the fate of our planet.

    Available online at: https://wagingpeace.davidmolinaojeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/peace_literacy.pdf

    Humanize Not Modernize
    Informational Booklet

    Humanize Not Modernize discusses the five reasons why the United States should not waste $1 trillion modernizing its nuclear arsenal and the 10 worthy ways to reallocate those funds. This informational booklet aims to make the shift from modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal to humanizing our planet.

    Available online at: https://wagingpeace.davidmolinaojeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/humanize_not_modernize.pdf

    15 Moral Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
    Informational Booklet

    NAPF President David Krieger wrote these 15 moral reasons to abolish nuclear weapons. Ending the nuclear weapons threat is up to us all. There is no room for complacency.

    Available online at: https://wagingpeace.davidmolinaojeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/15_moral_reasons.pdf

    Nuclear Zero: Spiritual Leaders Speak Out
    Informational Booklet

    This short booklet contains quotes from nine spiritual leaders from around the world in favor of the abolition of nuclear weapons. Spiritual leaders around the world agree: we share a common responsibility to protect creation.

    Available online at: https://wagingpeace.davidmolinaojeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/nuclearzero_believe.pdf

    Sunflower E-Newsletter

    The Sunflower is the Foundation’s free monthly electronic newsletter provided to over 75,000 online members. It provides summaries of current issues of global security, nuclear policy, disarmament, proliferation, energy, waste, missile defense, resources and action items, as well as current and upcoming Foundation activities. NAPF publishes 12 issues annually at the beginning of each month.

    Current and back issues can be found on the Foundation’s website at https://wagingpeace.davidmolinaojeda.com/resources/sunflower/.

    Books

    NAPF Peace Leadership Director Paul K. Chappell authored two books during the reporting period. The Art of Waging Peace (2015) offers new and practical solutions in today’s struggle to stop war, terrorism and other global problems. By sharing his own personal struggles with childhood trauma, racism, and berserker rage, Chappell explores the anatomy of war and peace, giving strategies, tactics, and leadership principles to resolve inner and outer conflict. The Cosmic Ocean (2015) is Mr. Chappell’s most recent book. To survive and progress as a global human family, Chappell explains that we need a paradigm shift that can transform our understanding of peace, justice, love, happiness, and what it means to be human. To help create this paradigm shift, The Cosmic Ocean explores diverse subjects such as empathy, rage, nonviolent struggle, war, beauty, religion, philosophy, science, Gandhi, the Iliad, slavery, human sacrifice, video games, sports, and our shared humanity.

    NAPF President David Krieger published four books during this reporting period. WAKE UP! (2015) is a compilation of Dr. Krieger’s piercing and thought-provoking peace poetry. ZERO: The Case for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (2nd edition, 2015) is a collection of Dr. Krieger’s short essays that together make a strong case for the urgent abolition of nuclear weapons. Summer Grasses (2014) is an anthology of war poetry collected over the years by Dr. Krieger. Speaking of Peace: Quotations to Inspire Action (3rd edition, 2014) is a collection of quotations on peace, war and the human spirit. These quotations were selected by David Krieger to encourage thought and inspire action toward a more peaceful and nuclear weapon-free world.

    Articles and Op-Eds

    NAPF President David Krieger and Director of Programs Rick Wayman have had numerous letters to the editor and op-eds published during the reporting period. Media outlets publishing content from Dr. Krieger and Mr. Wayman include The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Santa Barbara News-Press, Truthout, Counterpunch, Hiroshima Peace Media Center and Pressenza.

    Public Lectures

    Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future

    This endowed lecture is named for Frank K. Kelly, a co-founder and Senior Vice President of the Foundation.  The lecture focuses on hope and inspiration for a positive future for humanity, and is presented annually by a distinguished individual and subsequently published and distributed by the Foundation.  The 2015 Kelly Lecture was delivered by Helen Caldicott who was named by the Smithsonian as one of the most influential women of the 20th century and is renowned as a prominent and influential speaker on nuclear weapons and the fate of the Earth. Her lecture was entitled “Preserving the Future.” The 2016 Kelly Lecture was delivered by Robert Scheer, one of the nation’s most outspoken and progressive journalists, professor of Communications at the University of Southern California, and Editor-in-Chief of Truthdig.com. The title of his lecture was “War, Peace, Truth and the Media.” Transcripts and videos of all of the Kelly Lectures are available on the Foundation’s website at https://wagingpeace.davidmolinaojeda.com/programs/public-events/kelly-lecture/.

    Lectures at Universities and Other Public Venues

    In the past two years, NAPF staff members have given over 100 public lectures in many US states as well as in Uganda, Germany, Austria, Canada, Mexico and Japan. Audiences are specifically challenged to think critically about nuclear weapons and join NAPF in taking action for a nuclear weapon-free world.

    NAPF has also worked with over 50 universities around the United States to arrange screenings of the film Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1, which details the effects of U.S. nuclear weapons testing on the people of the Marshall Islands. Rick Wayman, NAPF’s Director of Programs, spoke to many of these university groups about the film and about the Marshall Islands’ nuclear disarmament lawsuits either in person or via skype video chat.

    Speakers Bureau

    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation maintains a Speakers Bureau featuring numerous Foundation representatives available to speak on many different aspects of peace and nuclear disarmament. More information is available online at https://wagingpeace.davidmolinaojeda.com/about/speakers-bureau/.

    Empowering the Public

    Internship Program

    The Foundation provides internship opportunities to select college student during the academic year to work with staff on current peace and security issues. Interns conduct research, write analysis of issues, work on the websites and gain valuable insight into the workings of an NGO.

    During the Summer, the Foundation offers three full-time paid internships through a competitive application process. Students come from all around the United States and abroad to work at the Foundation’s Santa Barbara office. During this reporting period, NAPF hosted 23 interns.

    Peace Leadership Program

    The NAPF Peace Leadership Program is led by Paul K. Chappell, a West Point graduate and Iraq War veteran. The program is designed to provide educators, students and activists with the skills they need to effectively wage peace every day. The program seeks to develop peace leadership that will achieve a world free of nuclear weapons through innovative training in leadership, interpersonal communication and conflict resolution.

    The program has a comprehensive and targeted approach, providing lectures to high school students, colleges, veteran groups, churches and activist organizations throughout the United States and other countries and two-, three-, and five-day courses to foster leadership that promotes peace in our communities.

    Awards and Contests

    Swackhamer Disarmament Video Contest

    The Foundation has held a video contest annually since 2008 seeking videos of three minutes or less on specific topics related to nuclear disarmament. The 2015 contest received 60 entries on the topic “The Imperative of Reaching Nuclear Zero: The Marshall Islands Stands Up for All Humanity,” in which contestants discussed reasons for supporting the Marshall Islands’ nuclear disarmament cases at the International Court of Justice and U.S. Federal Court. The 2016 contest received 52 entries on the topic “Humanize, Not Modernize,” in which contestants outlined reasons why nuclear-armed nations should not “modernize” their nuclear arsenals.

    Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards

    This annual series of awards encourages poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit.  The Poetry Awards include three age categories:  Adult, Youth 13-18, and Youth 12 & Under.  The Foundation has published a book of the winning poems for the first seven years of the Awards, The Poetry of Peace (2003), and a sequel containing the winning poems for the years 2003-10 entitled Never Enough Flowers: The Poetry of Peace II (2012). In 2014, the contest received 140 entries. In 2015, the contest received 408 entries. In 2016, the contest received over 1,600 entries, the majority of which came from the Youth 13-18 category.

    Distinguished Peace Leadership Award

    The Distinguished Peace Leadership Award is presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated courageous leadership in the cause of peace. The Foundation has, on occasion, also presented a Lifetime Achievement Award for peace leadership. The award is presented at the Foundation’s Annual Evening for Peace in Santa Barbara, California. Instituted in 1984, past recipients of the award include His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Captain Jacques Cousteau, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Jody Williams, King Hussein of Jordan, Walter Cronkite and Daniel Ellsberg. In 2014, NAPF honored Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of the social justice organization CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange. In 2015, NAPF honored Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and an outspoken advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

    Memberships

    Abolition 2000

    Abolition 2000 is a network of over 2000 organizations in more than 90 countries working for a global treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. NAPF was a founding organization in 1995. For more information, visit www.abolition2000.org.

    Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

    The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) supports over 30 member organizations and groups who are working throughout the country to empower citizens to take action and to protest an opaque and mismanaged nuclear complex. ANA works to find solutions that can achieve a vision of a modern society that runs off renewable energy sources, has verifiably dismantled the world’s nuclear arsenal, and has responsibly disposed of our nuclear waste. For more information, visit www.ananuclear.org.

    Amplify: Generation of Change

    NAPF Director of Programs Rick Wayman is Co-Chair of Amplify, a growing international network of the younger generation of leaders in the field of nuclear abolition. The Amplify network is uniting youth from all over the world to create opportunities for future collaborations transcending strategic differences. The network’s goal is to amplify and strengthen the call for complete nuclear abolition by taking action, raising our voices and pursuing nuclear abolition in our communities and countries. For more information, visit www.amplifyyouth.org.

    International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

    ICAN is a global campaign coalition working to mobilize people in all countries to inspire, persuade and pressure their governments to initiate and support negotiations for a treaty banning nuclear weapons. The campaign was launched in 2007, and now has more than 400 partner organizations in 95 countries. For more information, visit www.icanw.org.

    International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility (INES)

    INES is a network of some 80 organizations in 34 countries concerned about the impact of science and technology on society.  The Foundation provides support and leadership for the Network and regularly participates in its conferences and workshops. For more information, visit www.inesglobal.com.

    International Peace Bureau (IPB)

    IPB is comprised of 300 member organizations in 70 countries, together with individual members, to form a global network, bringing together knowledge and campaigning experience in a common cause. IPB links experts and advocates working on similar issues in order to build strong civil society movements. For more information, visit www.ipb.org.

    Middle Powers Initiative

    The Foundation is a founding member of the Middle Powers Initiative (MPI), a coalition of eight international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) seeking the cooperation of middle power governments and civil society in pursuit of a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. For more information, visit www.middlepowers.org.

    World Future Council

    NAPF President David Krieger is Co-Chair of the Peace and Disarmament working group of the World Future Council. For more information on the World Future Council, visit www.worldfuturecouncil.org.

  • The Pale Blue Dot – The Sagan Series

    The Pale Blue Dot – The Sagan Series

    As the spacecraft Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990 left our planetary neighborhood for the fringes of the solar system, engineers turned it around for one last look at its home planet. Voyager 1 was about 4 billion miles away.

    Carl Sagan received the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Distinguished Peace Leadership Award in 1993 for his outspoken advocacy of peace and nuclear disarmament.

    Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

    The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

    Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

    The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

    It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

    — Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

  • NAPF: A Voice for Peace

    When we created the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 1982 we believed that peace is an imperative of the Nuclear Age.  That is, peace is no longer just desirable; in a nuclear-armed world, it is essential.  An important part of our work at the Foundation is to awaken people to the extraordinary dangers of living in the Nuclear Age.  We are always seeking new ways to break through the complacency of our time through education and advocacy.

    LOGO BUG PAGESI believe that complacency has four principal elements: apathy, conformity, ignorance and denial.  Together these four elements form the acronym ACID, and they are corrosive to a decent human future, or to any future at all.  We must transform apathy to empathy; conformity to critical thinking; ignorance to wisdom; and denial to recognition of the threats that nuclear weapons pose to our common future.

    We are seven decades into the Nuclear Age and the world has nine nuclear-armed countries possessing over 15,000 nuclear weapons, far more than enough to destroy civilization and the human species.  The leaders of these nine nuclear-armed countries are all engaged in modernizing their nuclear arsenals.  The US alone is planning to spend $1 trillion on modernizing its nuclear arsenal over the next three decades.  This is insane.  It will make the weapons smaller and more accurate, and thereby more likely to be used.

    When we stand alone our voices may be weak, but when we come together and unite we have the potential to be the most powerful force on Earth.  People power is far more potent than nuclear weapons.  Nuclear weapons are equal opportunity destroyers, but the people united are a superpower that can take charge of our planet.

    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, with its 75,000 members, is a valuable voice for peace.  Our purpose is to find better ways to resolve our differences than by making sacrificial lambs of our children and to lead in finding the way out of the nuclear weapons era, which could make sacrificial lambs of us all.

  • Archbishop Desmond Tutu Endorses NAPF for the Nobel Peace Prize

    Archbishop Desmond TutuI’m writing to share some meaningful news with you. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, world-renowned spiritual leader and social activist, has endorsed the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. This is truly a significant achievement as Archbishop Tutu is himself a past recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the world’s great moral leaders. We are honored by his belief in our work.

    In his endorsement, Archbishop Tutu cited our continued global efforts (since 1982) to abolish nuclear weapons. He also endorsed the Aegean Solidarity Movement and the Club of Rome, Dr. Herman Daly and Pope Francis, saying, “What the nominations have in common is that they represent collective responses to the realities of globalization‚ finite resources and security. They underscore the inter-dependent nature of our human family.”

    We will of course continue to do all we can in pursuit of a more peaceful world, free of nuclear weapons. We seek this for the people of today – our human family – and also for those of the future, so that they may all live in a peaceful and just world, free from the threat of nuclear annihilation.

    Thank you for your continued support and engagement with the Foundation’s mission.

    Sincerely,

    David Krieger
    President
    Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

    Vaya aquí para la versión española.

  • Robert Scheer Delivers the 15th Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future

    Robert ScheerThe Nuclear Age Peace Foundation was pleased to welcome Robert Scheer, one of the nation’s most outspoken and progressive journalists, Professor of Communications at the University of Southern California, and Editor-In-Chief of Truthdig.com, to deliver the 15th Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future.

    Scheer’s lecture, entitled “War, Peace, Truth and the Media,” took place on Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. at the Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, California.

    Robert Scheer has built a reputation for powerful social and political writing during his 30 years as a journalist. His work appears in national media, and his in-depth interviews of prominent political and cultural figures have made international headlines.

    Between 1964 and 1969 he was Vietnam correspondent, managing editor and editor in chief of Ramparts magazine. From 1976 to 1993 he served as a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and lauched a nationally syndicated column, which is now based at truthdig.com.

    Presently, Mr. Scheer can be heard on his new podcast “Scheer Intelligence” and the radio program “Left, Right and Center” on KCRW. He is also a clinical professor of communication at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and he has written ten books, among them “Thinking Tuna Fish, Talking Death: Essays on the Pornography of Power” and “With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush and Nuclear War.”

    For more information on the Kelly Lecture series, as well as video, audio and photos of Robert Scheer’s lecture, click here.

  • Why Our World Needs Peace Literacy

    Humanity’s Greatest Invention

    Paul K. ChappellImagine if there were a high school in America today with a zero percent literacy rate, a high school where none of the students or teachers know how to read. Would this high school get national media attention? Actually, it would probably get international media attention, because today we recognize that literacy is the foundation of education, and we have constructed our society around literacy.

    Now imagine going back in time to 1200 BC in ancient Greece. This was around the time period of the Trojan War between the Greeks and Trojans. In 1200 BC the Greek and Trojan societies were almost completely illiterate. This is why none of the characters in the Iliad, which takes place during the Trojan War, know how to read. Not even the kings and princes know how to read. Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, and Priam are very intelligent, but they are illiterate.[i]

    Imagine trying to convince the Greeks and Trojans in 1200 BC that they should have universal literacy. Would this be an easy or difficult thing to do? It would be very difficult, because how do you explain the concept of universal literacy to people who have never heard of reading and writing?

    If you told them, “Writing is a process where you make marks on something, and the marks symbolize sounds,” they might respond, “What is the point of that? Why go through all that trouble? Why not just use your voice to communicate, or send a messenger to relay your message?”

    If you said, “Literacy allows you to read books and letters,” they would respond, “What is a book? What is a letter?” Explaining what books and letters are to people who have no concept of literacy would be difficult, but explaining what we use literacy for in the twenty-first century would probably be impossible. Literacy is more important now than it has ever been, because today we have expanded our use of literacy to include e-mail, text messages, the Internet, Facebook, ordering from menus, buying subway tickets, using street signs to navigate, and much more. How could you possibly explain the concept of the Internet to people living in 1200 BC? How could they even begin to comprehend what the Internet is, if they don’t even know what literacy is?

    If you are living in a small nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe, then you don’t need literacy. But if you are living in a large agricultural civilization consisting of several hundred thousand or several million people, then literacy becomes essential. That is why large agricultural civilizations all over the world eventually reach a point where they try to develop a written language, whether in ancient China, India, Babylon, Egypt, Carthage, Rome, or on the other side of the globe in the land of the Aztecs and Mayans.[ii]

    Literacy is something we often take for granted today, but why is literacy so important? When I ask this question to audiences, they often say that literacy is important because it allows us to distribute information. But there are two larger reasons why literacy is important. The first larger reason is because as Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power.”[iii] There is a reason why American slave owners made it illegal for slaves to learn how to read. There is a reason why the Nazis burned books and why throughout history dictators have banned books. There is a reason why Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head for trying to promote literacy and education for women, and there is a reason why the Taliban doesn’t want women to become educated. When you deny people literacy, you also deny them power.

    The second larger reason why literacy is important is because literacy not only allows us to distribute information, but literacy also gives us access to entirely new kinds of information. One of the new forms of information that literacy gives us access to is history. History cannot exist without literacy.[iv] This might sound odd, but the reason history requires literacy is because without literacy, you cannot separate history from mythology. If you were to ask an ancient Greek man in 1200 BC who his ancestors were, he might say, “On my father’s side my distant ancestor was Zeus, and on my mother’s side my distant ancestor was Aphrodite.” That would sound normal back then, but that would sound very strange today. Because they lacked a written history, the ancient Greeks and Trojans also did not seem to have any historical memory that they once lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers for countless generations. Instead, they seemed to believe that their ancestors, after being created by Greek deities, had always lived in an agricultural civilization.

    Another new form of information that literacy gives us access to is science. Literacy makes every scientific field possible, because literacy allows us to organize and analyze information in new ways. So if you like electricity, then thank literacy. In addition, complex math cannot exist without literacy. Algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus require a written language.

    Because literacy allows the human mind to expand and explore in so many ways, literacy is perhaps humanity’s greatest invention. Humanity discovered how to use fire, but we invented literacy. Some people might argue that the wheel is humanity’s greatest invention, but history, science, and complex math can exist without the wheel. They cannot exist without a written language. Unlike spoken language, walking, and other natural human abilities that are as old as our species, reading and writing are not natural human abilities, but relatively recent inventions.

    A better term for the ancient Greeks and Trojans living in 1200 BC is not illiterate, but preliterate, because they did not yet understand why literacy was an essential step in their society’s evolution. They lacked awareness of what literacy even meant, because when you live in a preliterate society, you don’t realize you are preliterate.

    Now the point I want to make is, what if all of us in the twenty-first century are living in a preliterate society and we don’t even realize it? We are not preliterate in reading, but in something else. What if we are living in a society that is preliterate in peace, and a major reason why we have so many national problems, global problems, and even personal and family problems is because our society is preliterate in peace. Just as literacy in reading gives us access to new kinds of information such as history, science, and complex math, literacy in peace also gives us access to new kinds of information such as solutions to our national and global problems, along with solutions to many of our personal and family problems.

    The Seven Forms of Peace Literacy

    There are seven forms of peace literacy. The first is literacy in our shared humanity. What does it mean to be human? If you ask a hundred different people what it means to be human, you will probably get a hundred different answers, because we are preliterate in our shared humanity. Think about how difficult it would be to dehumanize people if we were all literate in our shared humanity. Think about how difficult it would be for someone to manipulate our human vulnerabilities if we were fully aware of the many ways people exploit these vulnerabilities.

    The second form of peace literacy is literacy in the art of living. Living is the most difficult art form, and most of us are not taught how to live. As a child I was never taught the many essential life skills that are part of the art of living. I was never taught how to resolve conflict, calm myself down, calm other people down, overcome fear, focus my mind, inspire people to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks, lead from a foundation of respect rather than intimidation, develop empathy, be a good friend, have a healthy relationship, challenge injustice, be happy, cleanse myself of hypocrisy, find purpose and meaning in life, develop my sense of self-awareness so that I can critique myself honestly, and help humanity create a more peaceful and just world.

    Some children learn these skills from their parents, but many parents do not know these skills, and many children learn harmful habits from their parents. I grew up in a violent household and had a traumatic upbringing, and literacy in the art of living has also helped me overcome my childhood trauma, control the homicidal rage that resulted from that trauma, heal my psychological wounds, and find purpose, meaning, and happiness in life. All people want purpose, meaning, and happiness in life, but our society is not literate in the healthiest ways to achieve this.

    The third form of peace literacy is literacy in the art of waging peace. In the military I saw how people in the military have excellent training in how to wage war, but most of us have no training in how to wage peace. If people were as literate in the art of waging peace as soldiers are in the art of waging war, our world would improve significantly.

    The fourth form of peace literacy is literacy in the art of listening. All of us know that many people in our society do not know how to listen well. To truly listen we must develop empathy. If we do not empathize with people we cannot really hear what they are saying. When we do not listen with empathy we hear only their words. But when we listen with empathy we also hear their emotions, hopes, and fears. We hear their humanity.

    Increasing literacy in the art of listening is one of the most important endeavors we can be involved in, because the inability to listen causes so many of our human problems, and everyone likes to be listened to. In all of human history, nobody has ever seriously said, “I hate it when people listen to me! I can’t stand it when people listen to me!” Nobody ever says, “My spouse and I have to go to marriage counseling, because my spouse listens to me all the time and I can’t take it anymore!”

    The fifth form of peace literacy is literacy in the nature of reality. So many of our misconceptions about peace result from our misconceptions about reality. And the last two forms of peace literacy are literacy in our responsibility to animals and literacy in our responsibility to creation. As human beings we have the power to protect our planet or drive ourselves and most life on Earth into extinction. We have become our own greatest threat to our survival, which is an alarming yet incredible fact. If we do not become literate in these seven areas, our species will not survive.

    peace_literacy_chart

    Peace Literacy Means Survival Literacy

    Peace literacy is the next step in the development of our global civilization, because peace literacy is necessary in an interconnected world where the fate of every nation is tied to the fate of our planet. Because of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons, war, and environmental destruction, being preliterate in peace puts humanity and our planet at great risk. During an era when humanity has the technological capacity to destroy itself, peace literacy means survival literacy.

    As a child in school I spent many years learning to read and write, but I did not learn peace literacy skills. If humanity is going to survive during our fragile future, we must create a world where a high school with a zero percent peace literacy rate would get national and international media attention, just as a high school today where none of the teachers or students know how to read would get national and international media attention. Peace literacy educates us on solving the root causes of our problems rather than merely dealing with symptoms, which is another reason why the survival and wellbeing of our country and planet depend on peace literacy.

    When peace literacy is concerned, every bit helps us improve our personal lives, the lives of those around us, and our planet as a whole. What is better, a society where three percent of people are peace literate, or a society where ten percent of people are peace literate? What is better, ten percent or thirty percent? It is estimated that around eighty-three percent of people today are literate in reading.[v] Imagine how different our world would be if eighty-three percent of people were peace literate, or if over fifty percent of people were peace literate. Today I would contend that less than 1 percent of people are literate in all seven forms of peace literacy. We must work together to change that. Human survival, along with the survival of most life on our planet, depends on peace literacy.

    Author Bio:

    Paul K. Chappell graduated from West Point in 2002, was deployed to Iraq, and left active duty in November 2009 as a Captain. He is the author of the Road to Peace series, a seven-book series about waging peace, ending war, the art of living, and what it means to be human. The first five published books in this series are Will War Ever End?, The End of War, Peaceful Revolution, The Art of Waging Peace, and The Cosmic Ocean. Chappell serves as the Peace Leadership Director for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Lecturing across the country and internationally, he also teaches courses and workshops on Peace Leadership and Peace Literacy. His website is www.peacefulrevolution.com

    To learn more about how you can become involved in learning and spreading peace literacy, visit www.peaceliteracy.org

    Endnotes

    [i] There is one possible reference to writing in the Iliad. In his introduction to the Robert Fagles translation of the Iliad, Bernard Knox says, “In Book 6 [of the Iliad], Glaucus tells the story of his grandfather Bellerophon. Proetus, king of Argos, sent him off with a message to the king of Lycia, Proteus’ father-in-law; it instructed the king to kill the bearer. ‘[He] gave him tokens, / murderous signs, scratched in a folded tablet . . .’” This reference is so vague that it is unclear whether these “murderous signs” were part of a written alphabet. Whether these scratched markings represented a written alphabet or just coded symbols, they seemed so mysterious that they are described by characters in the Iliad as signs and scratches. The written languages known as Linear A and Linear B, which existed in ancient Greece, seem to have been largely forgotten during the time of the Trojan War. Linear A and Linear B seem to have been used primarily for inventory, and it is likely that relatively few people ever had access to those written languages.

    [ii] The Incas might have attempted to record information through a system of knotted strings known as “khipu.” Also, written languages seem to start out being used for inventory before being used to tell stories. A society can have a written language for many centuries before using it for history, science, and complex math.

    [iii] Francis Bacon, Sacred Meditations (Radford, VA: Wilder, 2012), 22.

    [iv] Classical Mythology, Lecture 1, The Teaching Company, DVD. In the first lecture, professor Elizabeth Vandiver discusses how literacy makes intellectual disciplines possible.

    [v] Statistics on Literacy, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/education-building-blocks/literacy/resources/statistics.

  • International Peace Bureau Nominates de Brum and the Nuclear Zero Legal Team for Nobel Peace Prize

    Geneva, 26 January 2016
    Norwegian Nobel Institute
    Henriks Ibsens gate 51
    0255 Oslo

    Dear Sir/Madam

    NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINATION 2016: Tony de Brum and the legal team of the
    Republic of the Marshall Islands.

    The International Peace Bureau is pleased to convey to you its nomination for the 2016 Prize: former Foreign Minister Tony de Brum and the legal team appointed by the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) to handle its nuclear weapons cases.

    On April 24, 2014, the RMI filed landmark lawsuits against the nine nuclear-armed nations for failing to comply with their obligations under international law to pursue negotiations for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. As the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation underlines: “The Republic of the Marshall Islands acts for the seven billion of us who live on this planet to end the nuclear weapons threat hanging over all humanity. Everyone has a stake in this.”

    The RMI has made a courageous step in challenging nine of the world’s most powerful states at the International Court of Justice. The tiny Pacific nation has launched a parallel court case against the USA at the Federal District Court (1). RMI argues that the nuclear weapons‐possessing countries have breached their obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non‐Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and customary international law by continuing to modernize their arsenals and by failing to pursue negotiations in good faith on nuclear disarmament.

    RMI’s former Foreign Minister Tony de Brum has played the key political role in gaining support and approval for this initiative. He in turn has been supported by a highly effective legal team. De Brum and RMI have already received at least two important international prizes for their action.

    The Marshall Islands were used by the USA as testing ground for nearly 70 nuclear tests from 1946 to 1958. These tests gave rise to lasting health and environmental problems for the Marshall Islanders. Their first‐hand experience of nuclear devastation and personal suffering gives legitimacy to their action and makes it especially difficult to dismiss.

    The Marshall Islands are presently working hard on the court cases. Hearings on preliminary issues in the International Court of Justice will take place in March 2016, and an appellate hearing in the case in the US court will take place in 2016 or possibly 2017. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize would do much to draw public attention to this extremely important initiative and to help ensure a successful outcome.

    It is certainly not the case that the RMI, with its some 53,000 inhabitants, a large proportion of whom are young people, have no need of compensation or assistance. Nowhere are the costs of a militarized Pacific better illustrated than there. The country is burdened with some of the highest cancer rates in the region following the 12 years of US nuclear tests. Yet it is admirable that the Marshall Islanders in fact seek no compensation for themselves, but rather are determined to end the nuclear weapons threat for all humanity.

    The world still has around 16,000 nuclear weapons, the majority in the USA and Russia, many of them on high alert. The knowhow to build atomic bombs is spreading, largely due to the continued promotion of nuclear power technology. Presently there are 9 nuclear weapon states, and 28 nuclear alliance states; and on the other hand 115 nuclear weapons‐free zone states plus 40 non‐nuclear weapons states. Only 37 states (out of 192) are still committed to nuclear weapons, clinging to outdated, questionable and extremely dangerous ‘deterrence’ policies.

    IPB has a long history of campaigning for disarmament and for the banning of nuclear weapons (http://www.ipb.org). The organisation was, for instance, actively involved in bringing the nuclear issue before the International Court of Justice in 1996. The IPB sincerely believes that the Marshall Islands initiative will prove to be a significant and decisive step in ending the nuclear arms race and in achieving a world without nuclear weapons.

    Further details about the lawsuits and the campaign are available at www.nuclearzero.org

    Yours sincerely

    Colin Archer
    Secretary‐General

    The International Peace Bureau is dedicated to the vision of a World Without War. We are a Nobel Peace Laureate (1910), and over the years 13 of our officers have also been recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Our 300 member organisations in 70 countries, and individual members, form a global network bringing together expertise and campaigning experience in a common cause. IPB has UN Consultative Status since 1977 and is the Secretariat for the NGO Committee for Disarmament (Geneva). Our main programme centres on Disarmament for Sustainable Development, of which the Global Campaign on Military Spending is a key part.

    www.ipb.org
    www.gcoms.org
    www.ipb2016.berlin
    www.makingpeace.org

  • Robert M. Hutchins: Building on Earlier Foundations

    hutchinsMuch of our current work for a more just and peaceful world builds on the thinking and efforts of earlier foundations. An important foundation is the leading role of Robert M. Hutchins, long-time President of the University of Chicago (l929 -1951) whose birth anniversary we mark on 17 January.

    Hutchins’ father, William,was President of Berea, a small but important liberal arts college, so Robert Hutchins (1899-1977) was set to follow the family pattern. He went to Yale Law School and stayed on to teach. He quickly became the Dean of the Law School and was spotted as a rising star of US education. When he was 30 years old, he was asked to become President of the University of Chicago, a leading institution. Hutchins was then the youngest president of a US university.

    In the first decade of his tenure, the 1930s, his ideas concerning undergraduate education − compulsory survey courses, early admission after two years of secondary school for bright and motivated students, a concentration on “Great Books” – an examination of seminal works of philosophy in particular Plato and Aristotle − divided the University of Chicago faculty. There were strong and outspoken pro and anti Hutchins faculty groups. Moreover Hutchins’ abolition of varsity football and ending the University’s participation in the “Big Ten” university football league distressed some alumni whose link to the university was largely limited to attending football games. For Hutchins, a university was for learning and discussion, not for playing sports. As he famously said “ When I feel like excercizing, I sit down until the feeling goes away.”

    It is Hutchins’ creation and leadership of the Committee to Frame a World Constitution in 1945 which makes him one of the intellectual founders of the movement for world federation and world citizenship. After the coming to power of Hitler in Germany in 1933 and his quick decision to ban Jewish professors from teaching in German universities, many Jewish scientists and professors left Germany and came to the USA. Some of the leading natural scientists joined the University of Chicago. Thus began the “Metallurgy Project” as the work on atomic research was officially called.

    The University of Chicago team did much of the theoretical research which led to the Atom Bomb. While Hutchins was not directly involved in the atomic project, he understood quickly the nature of atomic energy and its military uses. He saw that the world would never return to a “pre-atomic” condition and that new forms of world organization were needed.

    On 12 August 1945, a few days after the use of the atom bombs, Hutchins made a radio address “Atomic Force: Its Meaning for Mankind” in which he outlined the need for strong world institutions, stronger than the UN Charter, whose drafters earlier in the year did not know of the destructive power of atomic energy.

    Several professors of the University of Chicago were already active in peace work such as Mortimer Adler, G.A. Borgese, and Richard McKeon, Dean of the undergraduate college. The three approached Hutchins saying that as the University of Chicago had taken a lead in the development of atomic research, so likewise, the university should take the lead in research on adequate world institutions. By November 1945, a 12-person Committee to Frame a World Constitution was created under Hutchins’ chairmanship. The Committee drew largely on existing faculty of the University of Chicago − Wilber Katz, Dean of the Law School and Rexford Tugwell who taught political science but who had been a leading administrator of the Roosevelt New Deal and Governor of Puerto Rico. Two retired professors from outside Chicago were added − Charles McIlwain of Harvard, a specialist on constitutions, and Albert Guerard of Stanford, a French refugee who was concerned about the structure of post-war Europe.

    From 1947 to 1951, the Committee published a monthly journal Common Cause many of whose articles still merit reading today as fundamental questions concerning the philosophical basis of government, human rights, distribution of power, and the role of regions are discussed. The Preliminary Draft of a World Constitution was published in 1948 and reprinted in the Saturday Review of Literature edited by Norman Cousins and in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists some of whom were in the original “Metallurgy Project”. The Preliminary Draft raised a good deal of discussion, reflected in the issues of Common Cause. There was no second draft. The Preliminary Draft was as G.A. Borgese said, quoting Dante “…of the True City at least the Tower.”

    In 1951, Hutchins retired from the presidency of the University of Chicago for the Ford Foundation and then created the Ford Foundation-funded Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions where he gathered together some of his co-workers from the University of Chicago.

    Two ideas from The Preliminary Draft are still part of intellectual and political life for those concerned with a stronger UN. The first is the strong role of regional organizations. When The Preliminary Draft was written the European Union was still just an idea and most of the States now part of the African Union were European colonies. The Preliminary Draft saw that regional groups were institutions of the future and should be integrated as such in the world institution. Today, the representatives of States belonging to regional groupings meet together at the UN to try to reach a common position, but regional groups are not part of the official UN structure. However, they may be in the future.

    The other lasting aspect of The Preliminary Draft is the crucial role that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should play. The then recently drafted UN Charter had created a “consultative status” for NGOs, but few of the UN Charter drafters foresaw the important role that NGOs would play as the UN developed. The Preliminary Draft had envisaged a Syndical Senate to represent occupational associations on the lines of the International Labour Organization where trade unions and employer associations have equal standing with government delegates. In 1946, few people saw the important role that the NGOs would later play in UN activities. While there is no “Syndical Senate”, today NGOs represent an important part of the UN process.

    Hutchins, however, was also a reflection of his time. There were no women as members of the Committee to Frame a World Constitution, and when he created the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions with a large number of “fellows”, consultants, and staff, women are also largely absent.

    The effort to envisage the structures and processes among the different structures was an innovative contribution to global institution building at the time, and many of the debates and reflections are still crucial for today.
    ************************************************
    Notes

    For an understanding of the thinking of those involved in writing The Preliminary Draft see:

    Mortimor Adler. How to think about War and Peace (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944)
    Rexford Tugwell. Chronicle of Jeopardy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955)
    G.A. Borgese. Foundations of the World Republic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1953)
    Scott Buchanan. Essay in Politics (New York: Philosophical Library, 1953)
    For a life of Hutchins written by a co-worker in the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions:
    Harry Ashmore. Unreasonable Truths: the Life of Robert Maynard Hutchins (Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1989)
    *********************************************
    Rene Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.