On 19 September 2018, the Secretary General of Pugwash, Prof. Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, and the Director of the Pugwash Geneva Office, Sergey Batsanov, participated in the special Commemorative event marking the International Day of Peace 2018 organized by the Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament (CPAPD) in Nanjing, China. There they delivered a paper, “Peace, Disarmament, and the Risk of (Nuclear) War.”
Concluding a survey of the many global dangers present, they observed that
Countries that feel the responsibility of preventing war in the nuclear age should pay extreme attention to the prevention of religious-based or ethnic-based antagonisms. This becomes even more important in the light of the attempts to blur the line between war and peace, to invent or re-invent new pretexts for the use of military force, and to weaken traditional norms and principles of international law, including those relating to the sovereignty and equality of states, non-aggression, and non-use of force. It is time to step up efforts in defense of these norms while at the same time intensifying the search for often intangible, invisible compromises that have the potential to defuse crisis situations, restore at least some degree of trust in international relations, and reduce the explosive potential that exists today
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs 