Peace does not begin with silence

In 1957, at the height of the Cold War, scientists from across the world travelled to a small village on the Northumberland Strait to talk about nuclear weapons, global annihilation, and what it would take to pull the world back from the edge of catastrophe. They came in spite of their differences. In spite of long-held hostilities. What emerged was the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs — one of the most significant peace movements of the twentieth century, and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 1995. The idea at the heart of it became known as the Pugwash spirit: that you can sit…