Authors

Katja Castryck-Naumann¹;  ¹ GWZO Leipzig, Germany

Discussion

The 1950s saw several proposals for the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Europe that would circumvent the often-failed efforts for universal disarmament that the United States and the Soviet Union alternately promoted at the UN. The most promising of these was the concept known as the 'Rapacki Plan', named after Adam Rapacki, the Polish foreign minister at the time. Introduced to the UN General Assembly in 1957 and later presented in revised versions, the Rapacki Plan was ultimately rejected. However, its core idea of regional nuclear disarmament was widely circulated and became a cornerstone of international denuclearisation politics during the Cold War and beyond. Among other things, it paved the way for the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, inspired zones in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and when the UN General Assembly defined a nuclear-weapon-free zone in 1975, the concept became an internationally approved tool for pacifying the world.

At first glance, the history of nuclear-weapon-free zones is a history of diplomacy. States make legally binding commitments to ensure the total absence of nuclear weapons on their territory. On closer look, it is a history of scientific diplomacy. The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs have repeatedly discussed and supported nuclear-weapon-free zones. International research institutions such as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute or the Peace Research Institute Oslo provided knowledge that informed and guided politics and diplomacy. In this paper, I show links between the Rapacki Plan developed by lawyers in Warsaw, international peace research, Pugwash activism and the diplomacy of regional denuclearisation that has so far led to the establishment of five nuclear-weapon-free zones. I highlight the crucial role of scientists from Central Europe and place the Pugwash network in the larger context of scientist-led denuclearisation.