Pugwash Worldwide – Pugwash Iraq

International Pugwash

The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organisation that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was founded in 1957 by Joseph Rotblat and Bertrand Russell in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, following the release of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955.

That manifesto, signed by eleven of the world’s most eminent scientists, called on world leaders to renounce nuclear weapons, to “remember their humanity,” and to find peaceful means for resolving disputes. In their efforts to change dangerous policies, the founders of Pugwash became pioneers of a new kind of transnational, “track 2” dialogue — bringing together scientists and policy experts from opposing sides of the Cold War divide to discuss, in private, the existential dangers they shared.

Through meetings and projects that bring together scientists, experts, and policymakers, Pugwash focuses on problems that lie at the intersection of science and world affairs. Its main goals are to seek the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction, to reduce the risk of war especially in areas where such weapons are present, and to discuss new scientific and technological developments that may heighten the risk of conflict. These objectives are pursued through debate, discussion, and collaborative analysis — in an atmosphere of impartiality and mutual respect — in periodic general conferences, specialised workshops and study groups, and through special projects.

Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts on nuclear disarmament. Today, there are approximately fifty national Pugwash groups, organised as independent entities and often supported or administered by national academies of science. Pugwash Iraq is proud to be one of them, carrying the Pugwash tradition into a country that has itself suffered grievously from weapons of mass destruction — and that has given the organisation its current President, Dr. Hussain Al-Shahristani.

Pugwash Around the World

Pugwash is truly a global phenomenon. The strength and depth of the Pugwash movement depends on the commitment and involvement of leading people in countries around the world — through structured national Pugwash groups and through well-developed networks of personal contacts. There are approximately fifty national Pugwash groups, organised as independent entities and often supported or administered by national academies of science. Each group operates independently, with its members participating in Pugwash activities as individuals rather than as representatives of their governments — a principle that has always been central to Pugwash’s effectiveness as a forum for candid, non-political dialogue.

Among the most historically significant and consistently active national chapters are those of the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, France, India, Canada, and Sweden. British Pugwash has been and continues to be one of the movement’s most active national groups, with deep roots going back to the founding of the movement — Joseph Rotblat himself was a British-Polish scientist working in London. The American and Russian chapters played an indispensable role during the Cold War, serving as a back channel between the two superpowers at times when official dialogue had broken down. The Italian chapter is home to Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, who served as Pugwash Secretary General from 2002 to 2024, and the German chapter has been particularly active on questions of nuclear strategy and arms control in Europe. The Japanese chapter carries special moral authority, given Japan’s unique experience as the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, and has hosted three international Pugwash conferences — in 1995, 2005, and most recently in Hiroshima in 2025.

Beyond Europe and the original Cold War protagonists, active groups exist across Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada), the Middle East (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestine), South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), and East Asia (Japan, South Korea). International Student/Young Pugwash (ISYP) is a global and interdisciplinary network of students and young professionals concerned with the nexus of science, ethics, and security, ensuring that the next generation is being drawn into the Pugwash tradition.

Pugwash Iraq is proud to take its place among these national chapters, bringing a perspective that is both deeply personal — given Iraq’s own experience of weapons of mass destruction — and strategically important, in a region where the risks that Pugwash was founded to address remain all too real.