PNND staff person wins Pugwash Youth Award

UK Student/Young Pugwash announced today that the winner of their blog competition for 2016/2017 is Caroline Leroy, PNND Desk Officer for Latin America and the Basel Peace Office Program Director.

Caroline, pictured above doing a nuclear disarmament action with her boyfriend on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons,  is working for PNND and the Basel Peace Office as part of a placement year for her graduate studies in politics and international relations at the University of Bath (UK).

The UK Student Pugwash competition asked young academics and practitioners to provide a mock briefing paper to the UK government providing advice on a policy or practice to reduce global threats from Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Caroline argued in a blog entitled A policy proposal for the UK government: Prevent a nuclear catastrophe that the UK should adopt a ‘no first use’ policy on nuclear weapons and use its influence in NATO and the P5 to encourage other states to follow suit.

She acknowledged that the UK government is not ready to abolish its nuclear arsenals completely, but has taken some incremental steps to reduce the risks of nuclear weapons being used and to lower their role in the UK security doctrine. Adopting a no-first-use policy would be a logical next step that would enhance the security of the UK and contribute to the implementation of nuclear disarmament obligations.

Caroline suggests that adopting no-first-use policies would be a suitable initial response by the nuclear-armed States to the ‘humanitarian initiative’, which has led to an increased global understanding of the risks of nuclear weapons being used by accident, miscalculation or intent – and the catastrophic consequences of any such use. Indeed some of the nuclear-armed States have already committed themselves to no-first use or to ‘sole purpose’ which is very similar.

Caroline will join other young academics and practitioners in London on March 25 for Uncharted Territory: Arms control and disarmament in the New Nuclear Age, a conference of British Youth and Student Pugwash  being held at the University of London