Recent and upcoming nonproliferation activities, events, and announcements involving the CNS center, staff, and programs.

Updated: Jun 3, 2009

Disarmament and Nonproliferation Education:
An Essential Tool for a World Without Nuclear Weapons

Introduction

In order to further disarmament and nonproliferation education, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the Japanese government, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research co-hosted the seminar entitled "Disarmament and Nonproliferation Education: Yes, We Can!" on May 8, 2009 as a side event of the 2009 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. This is the second time that an event of this kind has occurred on the side lines of NPT meetings.

The importance of disarmament and nonproliferation education has been increasingly recognized and endorsed in the NPT Review Process since 2002 when the Secretary Generals' report on the UN study on disarmament and nonproliferation education was endorsed at the UN General Assembly.

At this year's PrepCom, 29 countries co-sponsored the joint statement on disarmament and nonproliferation education, which was an increase from last year's 20 countries. This is an important indicator showing the growing support for this initiative.

While this issue has received general endorsements from most of countries, and strong support from a select group of states such as Japan and Mexico, more concrete and practical actions and agendas are necessary. However, given many other urgent security concerns and crises, disarmament and nonproliferation education has been pushed aside in many countries. This seminar aimed to change this dynamics, as well as to draw more attention both from national governments, international organizations, and civil society to this important issue.

Summary of the Seminar

With a new administration in Washington, there was a hopeful and positive atmosphere at this year's NPT PrepCom, which extended to the education seminar. All of the panelists highlighted the importance of education for the next generation who will be responsible for future peace and security. Dr. William Potter, director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, chairing the panel, opened the seminar. He acknowledged the progress in disarmament and nonproliferation education while underlining the need of more concrete steps to be taken by national governments.

In his welcoming remarks, Ambassador Sumio Tarui, Permanent Representative of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament, expressed his special gratitude to the Japanese atomic bomb survivors, commonly referred to as Hibakusha, who had traveled from Japan to New York for the event. Ambassador Tarui laid out the main purpose of holding this seminar: to discuss how education can contribute to disarmament and nonproliferation, especially in the context of strengthening the NPT regime, and how to raise public awareness of disarmament and nonproliferation using education as a tool. He also underlined the current challenges facing the NPT, and how, now more than ever, it is important to promote disarmament and nonproliferation education to tackle those challenges. The power of education can unite people all over the world, he said, to work on reducing nuclear danger. To that end, conveying the effects of the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the next generation is an urgent task for all of us, given the aging Hibakusha, whose average age is over 75.

The panelists were from a wide range of areas covering various perspectives, including governmental officials, diplomat, educators, activist, student, and Hibakusha. This year's seminar included governmental representatives from the United Kingdom, Russia, and Mexico. Given the importance of individual government initiatives and support to promote disarmament and nonproliferation education, this was a noteworthy development.

Ms. Claudia Garcia, Second Secretary from the Mexican Mission at the Conference on Disarmament, laid out Mexico's initiatives in promoting disarmament and nonproliferation education. Mexico has been one of the most active state parties in this sphere. She acknowledged the increasing contribution of education to the goals of a nuclear-weapon-free world. She also introduced several recommendations to further utilize education for disarmament and nonproliferation. Those recommendations included creating a more interactive website to reach a broader audience and holding diplomatic seminars in order to promote global peace and education.

Mr. Steve Leeper, chairman of Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, focused on the cost of using nuclear weapons on humanity, as well as its long-lasting health and environmental effects. This is an essential aspect of disarmament and nonproliferation education that the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should continue to represent to the world. He emphasized that nuclear weapons represent an existential threat to human life on this planet and should be abolished immediately in the interest of human survival.

Dr. Kathleen Sullivan, consultant to the United Nations on disarmament and nonproliferation education, started her talk with acknowledging the efforts by the original members of the UN Expert Panel on the 2002 UN study on disarmament and nonproliferation education. The serious efforts made by these experts actually revitalized education as a tool to promote disarmament and nonproliferation. She introduced her efforts to develop and improve the UN "Cyberschoolbus", online educational material, and Hibakusha's activities to meet and talk with many high school students. She also talked about activities by the Peace Boat which recently toured around 22 countries with 103 Hibakusha on board to promote peace education internationally.

There is nothing stronger and more compelling than Hibakusha's voice to appeal for a world free of nuclear weapons. Ms. Toshiko Tanaka was six years old when she experienced the atomic bomb. She shared her own experience and heartily appealed for the importance of peace. She also talked about how the Peace Boat tour inspired her to share her own experience as a Hibakusha for with next generation.

Mr. Nick Pickard, head of the United Kingdom's Security Policy Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, first shared his view on why nuclear issues are not given enough attention by general public despite such criticality. Public interest in this issue is quite low, so it is important to focus on how to raise public awareness. He introduced the UK's efforts to raise public awareness and reach out to younger generations. Using newer communication technology prevailing among younger generations, such as Facebook, blogs, and Twitter, can be effective in raising interests in disarmament and nonproliferation issues among young people. He underlined the important roles of civil society and academia in this field in order to generate world wide debates over nuclear disarmament.

Dr. Vladimir Orlov, director of the Center for Policy Studies in Russia introduced the Russian government's efforts to promote nonproliferation education to university students, highlighting developing Russian-language educational materials and a textbook on this issue. He also emphasized the importance of cooperation between NGOs, academia and government.

The final speaker on the panel was Mr. Vasileios Savvidis, a student from Monterey Institute and an intern at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs. Dr. Potter introduced him as a perfect example of on-the-job training on disarmament and nonproliferation education, which is also included in the 34 recommendations in the UN Study on Disarmament and Nonproliferation Education. Vasileios shared his own view on lack of knowledge on this important issue among college students. Then he shared his experiences at the Monterey Institute, where he studied nonproliferation and disarmament. He expressed his gratitude to have such a great opportunity of an internship at the UN.

A vigorous and enthusiastic question- and- answer session followed the panel presentations. One of the original members of the UN expert group on Disarmament and Nonproliferation Education, Mr. Attila Zimonyi from Hungary, was in the audience and emphasized that it is important to find a way to relate disarmament and nonproliferation education to our daily lives. Another audience member suggested that art such as poetry, drawing and music can be integrated into peace education.

Among the audience there were several educators and researchers who are trying to create more user friendly educational materials. These participants actively exchanged useful information, knowledge and opinions.

As highlighted by all the panelists and many of participants, the role of education to make progress in disarmament and nonproliferation should never be underestimated and it is essential to raise public awareness on this issue among the younger generation in particular.

Conclusion

While the draft recommendations to the review conference were not adopted, the importance of disarmament and nonproliferation education as a useful and effective means to advance the goals of the NPT was stated in item 8. This symbolizes the widespread support for this issue, which has come largely through the tenacious collaborative efforts of several national governments, led by Japan, civil society and relevant international organizations. As a next step, the importance of disarmament and nonproliferation education must be universally recognized. More national governments' active involvement in this issue is desired.

The title of this seminar "Disarmament and Nonproliferation Education: Yes, We Can!" implies hope that national governments are encouraged to place disarmament and nonproliferation education on the mainstream policy agenda. The recent disarmament momentum energizing the civil society was no doubt generated by U.S. leadership. In order to give more impetus on disarmament and nonproliferation education, increased support and recognition from the U.S. government is essential. Looking forward to the 2010 NPT Review Conference, it is hoped that President Obama's wisdom also recognizes the power and promise of education to achieve his vision, a world without nuclear weapons.