The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (often abbreviated Pugwash) is an international organization focused on reducing global catastrophic risks posed by nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

History

Pugwash was founded in 1957 by Bertrand Russell and Joseph Rotblat, following the release of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto two years earlier. That document expressed the opinion that "scientists should assemble in conference to appraise the perils that have arisen as a result of the development of weapons of mass destruction", and Pugwash was an attempt to create just such a forum, by bringing together eminent scientists from East and West and in that way facilitate communication between leading thinkers on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

In 1995, Pugwash and Rotblat were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms." (The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 1995)

Evaluation

A comprehensive literature review by the Urban Institute commissioned by Open Philanthropy found relatively strong evidence, from both primary and secondary sources, that Pugwash played a very important role in enabling the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABT) (Rubinson 2019). Furthermore, in the 1980s Pugwash had significant influence on Soviet policy: Mikhail Gorbachev reportedly told Rotblat that "Pugwash scientists were crucial in shaping his views against nuclear weapons." (Rubinson 2019: 10)

Despite these and other achievements, Pugwash faced recurrent financial difficulties after severing its ties to Cyrus Eaton, the wealthy industrialist who provided initial funding for the conference series. Rotblat noted that, for many years, Pugwash "was run on a shoestring" (Rotblat 1972: 14), and the author of the review concludes that "Pugwash seems to have been almost constantly in danger of insolvency." (Rubinson 2019: 18)