Die Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) und die Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (HSFK) gaben heute bekannt, dass sie eine Partnerschaft für die nukleare Abrüstung eingegangen sind. Sie werden gemeinsam daran arbeiten, den internationalen Dialog und die Verständigung über die globale Abkehr von Nuklearwaffen zu verbessern, ihre Weiterverbreitung zu verhindern und schließlich diese Gefahr für die Welt zu beenden. Dabei geht es darum, weltweit Aktivitäten zu initiieren, um einem Atomkrieg vorzubeugen und die nukleare Abrüstung voran zu bringen. Bei Politikern, Politikexperten und der Öffentlichkeit insgesamt soll die Sachinformation, das Problembewusstsein, die Unterstützung des Projekts und aktives Handeln gefördert werden. Durch wachsende Verständigung, Bewusstseinsbildung, Unterstützung und einschlägige Initiativen sollen ein entschlossener und spürbarer Richtungswechsel und eine Reduzierung der nuklearen Gefahren erreicht werden.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) today announced that they will work together to advance international dialogue and understanding about reversing reliance on nuclear weapons globally, preventing their proliferation, and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world.
With a grant from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt will be a partner to NTI’s Nuclear Security Project working to galvanize global action to reduce the risk of a nuclear weapon being used by increasing understanding, awareness, support and action by policymakers, policy experts and the public around the world for purposefully and significantly changing direction and reducing nuclear dangers.
The Project builds on the January 4, 2007 Wall Street Journal op-ed “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons” by former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn. The op-ed links the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons with urgent steps designed to reduce nuclear dangers. The Project involves all four authors, and NTI serves as the General Secretariat of the Project, responsible for coordinating the work of the four principals as well as managing the implementation of this project.
PRIF executive director Harald Mueller said, “Without a determined initiative for renewed nuclear disarmament, there will be 20 to 30 nuclear weapon states within a generation, and the world will be a very dangerous place. Right now, such an initiative comes from the center of the US security community. This gives the project of a world free of nuclear weapons for the first time a realist prospect. PRIF is glad to make a contribution to this project through its partnership with NTI.””
NSP co-director Joan Rohlfing welcomed collaboration saying, “The Peace Research Institute Frankfurt has excellent in-house knowledge on nuclear weapons issues and has contributed greatly to this subject over the years. We are very pleased to have them as part of our efforts.”
Over the next 12 months, PRIF will develop studies on nuclear transparency, enforcement mechanisms for a nuclear weapons free world, the verification of a fissile material cut-off treaty, and the stability of the NPT regime. It will facilitate contacts of NTI to European policy-makers and help to set up workshops on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in Europe.
There has been growing momentum behind the vision and steps for a nuclear weapons free world, including:
- Australia and Japan have launched the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament;
- Both U.S. presidential candidates have talked about the importance of working toward a world without nuclear weapons;
- More than two-thirds of the living former U.S. Secretaries of State, Secretaries of Defense and National Security Advisors – spanning the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush Administrations – support the project;
- The British government has embraced the initiative;
- Statements from the Indian Prime Minister and other Indian officials have advance the goal of global nuclear disarmament; and
- Senior statesmen from across parties in the United Kingdom and in Italy have written op-eds embracing the vision and steps toward a nuclear weapons free world.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative is a non-profit organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
The Peace Research Institute Frankfurt was founded in 1970 by the government of the state of Hesse as an independent foundation. Within the framework of its political consulting, research results are converted into practically orientated options for action that find their way into the public debate.
More information about the Nuclear Security Project can be found at www.nuclearsecurity.org
Contact: Cathy Gwin, phone: 001-202-454-7706, e-mail: gwin@nti.org
1747 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006, USA
More information about the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt can be found at www.prif.org
Contact: Marlar Kin (Head of Public Relations), phone: 069/959104-13, e-mail: kin@hsfk.de,
Leimenrode 29, 60322 Frankfurt/Main, Germany