The year just gone by, 2017, marked the 60th anniversary of the first international conference on nuclear weapons held in Pugwash, a town in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The gathering, convened outside governmental channels in July 1957, brought together 22 scientists from the United States, the Soviet Union, Canada, and seven other countries to discuss how to achieve “a world free of nuclear weapons.” In subsequent years, the Pugwash conferences expanded a great deal, encompassing far more countries and becoming increasingly institutionalized. Pugwash came to be a fixture of sundry organizations and movements during the Cold War that sought to eliminate nuclear armaments. In 1995, after the end of the Cold War, the Pugwash network and its chief founder, the physicist Joseph Rotblat, jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize.
This special issue looks in detail at the origins and first decade of the Pugwash conferences, covering their role...