It’s hard to believe, but less than a decade ago, academics, policy analysts, and even officials were exploring US-NATO-Russia cooperation on ballistic missile defence1 – begging the question: why is that no longer considered an appropriate subject for polite company? Missile defence cooperation is still happening, of course, but it’s between Russia and China on one side and among the US and its friends and allies on the other. Unless, however, missile defence is pulled back from its current competitive dynamic to one of east-west accommodation and cooperation, nuclear tensions, and arsenals, will only grow. Canada has joined the competitive fray in Europe through NATO, but, to its credit, continues to resist direct involvement in the strategic North American version of ballistic missile defence.
Le Post & Daniel Ellsberg
Par Pierre Jasmin, artiste pour la paix, membre exécutif des Conférences Pugwash Canada et du Réseau canadien pour l’abolition de l’arme nucléaire
Les premières minutes du film
Film un peu trop prévisible, le Post pourrait avoir été tourné il y a un demi-siècle en noir et blanc (la photo ci-dessus n’en fait pas partie). Est-ce une qualité voulue par le metteur en scène Steven Spielberg, son compositeur John Williams, ainsi que par les deux acteurs chevronnés, Meryl Streep et Tom Hanks, vu que les événements relatés se passent en 1971, au tout début de leurs carrières respectives? Le travail effectué reflète leur expérience éminemment professionnelle et efficace : à une heure de l’après-midi le 12 janvier 2018, premier jour d’affiche, une salle remplie réagissait avec entrain au déroulement scénaristique implacable. Néanmoins, le jury des Golden Globes n’a avec raison accordé aucun des quatre prix majeurs (meilleur film, meilleures réalisation et meilleurs acteurs masculin et féminin) pour lesquels le film était en compétition. On constate aisément que la version originale du film ne contient aucune valeur ajoutée à la version traduite par nos compétents doubleurs québécois, qui s’acquittent de leur tâche sur un pilote moins automatique que leurs collègues-étoiles.
Our WMD treaties are working
ABSTRACT
As new technologies change the face of war, whether and how to pursue arms-control and disarmament treaties is an urgent question. Our past treaties show us that codified commitments can have an influence on state conduct. The author reviews what we can learn from existing agreements on weapons of mass destruction, including the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Iran nuclear agreement, and the conventions on biological and chemical weapons. Though in some cases they have had more impact than others, these agreements have been effective in curbing the spread and use of our most devastating weapons.
Read the full article at https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2017.1413058 (controlled access)
In 2018, will Canada finally lay out its cyber foreign policy?
Originally published on OpenCanada.org
Eight years after publishing its first cyber strategy, Canada has yet to develop a more comprehensive policy for guiding its cyber-related activities abroad. Paul Meyer looks to a recently released strategy in Australia for inspiration.
CPG Archive, 1998-2014
The table below shows papers, correspondence, reports, and articles by or about Canadian Pugwash Group members. By default, articles are listed by date, but you can choose any other header if you prefer. For example, you could sort by surname instead.
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About Canadian Pugwash Group
We are the national affiliate of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international organization, which had its birthplace in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in 1957 and which was awarded the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize together with its founder Sir Joseph Rotblat. The purpose of the Pugwash Conferences is to provide scholarly insights into the prevention and resolution of armed conflict, including nuclear and conventional disarmament, control of the arms trade, the peaceful settlement of disputes and to contribute to solutions for environmental threats to human security.
Education on global security, in a broad sense, is the mandate of the Canadian Pugwash Group, carried out by sponsoring conferences, roundtables and other events to foster informed discussion and to generate ideas and proposals relevant to the formulation of government policy. For example in recent years Canadian Pugwash has organized a conference on “Canada’s Contribution to Global Security” (July 2017) and one on “Towards a World Without Nuclear Weapons” (July 2015), both of which yielded a set of policy recommendations that were conveyed to the Government of Canada for consideration.
Canadian Pugwash Bylaws
On July 2, 2014, the Canadian Pugwash Group received a Certificate of Continuance under the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (NFP Act). The original incorporation of the organization was July 12, 1990. This followed a period of activity that dated as far back as the Pugwash foundation meeting in 1957.
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs:
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955 was a call to action in the campaign to prevent war and to realize nuclear disarmament. 
It was the inspiration behind the establishment in 1957 by the philanthropist Cyrus Eaton of the Pugwash Conferences and the gathering of scientists from East and West at his summer residence in the small seaside village of Pugwash, Nova Scotia (now the National Historic Site of “Thinkers Lodge”). Pugwash members continue to uphold the principles set out in the Russell-Einstein Manifesto.
Nobel Peace Prize
For more than sixty years the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs have been working for the control, reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. It was in recognition of these efforts that Pugwash, together with its President of the time, Joseph Rotblat, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In December 2017, Canadian Pugwash was honoured that one of its members, Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, was selected to receive alongside the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) the Nobel Peace Prize for ICAN’s efforts to ensure the negotiation of a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Membership:
The Canadian Pugwash Group has two categories of members: full members who are elected by the current Board of Directors on the basis of a nomination originating with one or more of the current members. New members have made significant contributions in their professional lives to advancing the goals of the Pugwash movement. A category of Associate Members is aimed at individuals at an earlier stage of their careers or those unable to participate on a regular basis with Canadian Pugwash activities, who nevertheless support the principles of the movement and who wish to engage with like-minded colleagues. Associate Members are appointed by the Chair upon consultation with the Board of Directors. All members have access to a dedicated listserv for the sharing of articles and other information relevant to Canadian Pugwash’s mission. Please feel free to contact the Chair or Vice-Chair for information about becoming associated with Canadian Pugwash.
Please use the menu to explore our website and to find out about current peace and security issues and initiatives involving Canadian Pugwash members.
Unless specified otherwise, articles on this website are the views of the individual author(s) only.