Die Rolle der Physiker bei nuklearer Abrüstung und heutige Herausforderungen

Prof Götz Neuneck 

(Vorsitzender VdW und Pugwash Council, Ex-Stellv. Direktor IFSH)

Abstract: Physicists had a major share to build nuclear weapons and later on tried to prevent their use in the aftermath of World War II, during the Cold War and beyond. They worked as advisors, diplomats and advocates for governments, the civil society and the international community. Key is to apply social responsibility for the consequences of their work. The new generation of physicist has to be prepared to understand the past to work further for finishing the business to get rid of nuclear weapons, before they get rid of us.

As a striking  example for this kind of Science Diplomacy, the Pugwash Conferences for Science and World Affairs were founded as a consequence of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955, which urged leaders of the world to gather and to ”think in a new way”: to renounce nuclear weapons, to ”remember their humanity” and to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them.

Under the currently increasing geopolitical tensions, the original Russell-Einstein Manifesto’s call is as relevant today as it was in the 1950’s. Scientists have an important role in analyzing technical aspects in disarmament and arms control, verification, safeguards, dismantlement of nuclear weapons and ways to rid the world of these weapons of mass destruction.

In summary, the talk will emphasize the fundamental role scientists in past and present to play in building peace and understanding in a complex and fragmented world. This includes the new build-up of nuclear arsenals of the Nuclear Superpowers, the demise of arms control, the debate of renuclearization of Europe and new proliferation dangers and nuclear threats.

Prof Dr Götz Neuneck is Chair of the Pugwash Council and Chair of the Federation of German Scientists. He is an expert in arms control, disarmament, new technologies, nuclear weapons, verification, science diplomacy, missile defense and space armament. From 2008 – 2018 he was scientific director of the postgraduate “Peace and Security Studies” Master’s programme at the University of Hamburg. After completing his degree in physics in Düsseldorf in 1984, he was part of the working group of Horst Afheldt and Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker run by the Max Planck Society in Starnberg. After receiving his PhD in Mathematics (1985) at the University of Hamburg, he became a researcher at the IFSH under Egon Bahr and deputy director of IFSH.