Yale Center for the Study of Globalization to Host Conference on Nuclear Weapons Abolition

News media mogul and arms reduction activist Ted Turner will deliver the keynote address at a two-day conference, February 21 and 22, hosted by the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization to revisit the case for abolishing nuclear weapons world-wide.

News media mogul and arms reduction activist Ted Turner will deliver the keynote address at a two-day conference, February 21 and 22, hosted by the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization to revisit the case for abolishing nuclear weapons world-wide.

Titled “Nuclear Weapons - The Greatest Peril to Civilization: A Conference To Imagine Our World Without Them,” the conference will take place 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. both days in the lecture hall of Sterling Memorial Library (entrance at 130 Wall St.) The event is free and open to the public.

The conference will consider a range of issues, including the scenarios for and consequences of a nuclear attack, historical perspectives on nuclear weapons abolition and the debilitation of the non-proliferation regime. One major theme will be whether there is a case to be made for abolition of nuclear weapons in the 21st century and, if so, what conditions have to be met in order for humanity at large, as well as current and potential nuclear power states, to undertake disarmament.

Sessions will also focus on such key strategic issues as the interplay between disarmament and proliferation; the definition of “zero” in regards to nuclear weapons; and how to achieve stability and maintain it in a world free of nuclear weapons.

Participants will include Sergio Duarte, the U.N. high commissioner for non-proliferation; Graham Allison, author of “Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe”; Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, the secretary-general of Pugwash, an international organization dedicated to reducing the danger of armed conflict and seeking cooperative solutions for global problems; Dmitri Trenin of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Moscow Center; Jonathan Schell, senior scholar of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and author of the recently released “The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger”; Celso Lafer, former foreign minister of Brazil; Frank von Hippel, co-director of the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University; and many others.

The keynote address will be presented at noon on Thursday by Turner, chair of Turner Enterprises and one of the founders of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which is working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. This address will take place in the Presidents Room of Woolsey Hall at the corner of College and Grove streets.

The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization has focused on nuclear weapons abolition for several years with the goal of progressively enhancing interest in the subject of prohibition and nuclear weapons abolition among members of the Yale community. For more information, visit the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization online or call (203) 432-1904.



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Media Contact

Dorie Baker: dorie.baker@yale.edu, 203-432-1345