Citation

Nature 2012; 482(7385): 275.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/482275a

PMID

22337010

Abstract

Scientists are prominent among those trying to make the world a safer place. Albert Einstein was committed to the international peace effort, and Soviet nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov and US chemist Linus Pauling are among the researchers who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Polish–British nuclear physicist Joseph Rotblat received the peace prize in conjunction with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, the nuclear-disarmament organization that he helped to found (see Nature 481, 438–439; 2012). The attitudes of these researchers chime with the internationalism of the scientific endeavour and the humanitarian goals that often motivate it.

At the same time, science and technology are integral to military development, and defence funding supports a great deal of research, much of it excellent. There need be no contradiction here: nations have a right to self-defence, and armed forces are often deployed for peace-keeping as well as for aggression. But what constitutes responsible use of military might is controversial, and peace-keeping is generally necessary only because aggressors have been supplied with military hardware in the first place.

Language: en