Vol. 7 | No. 2 | Fall 2008
This past summer marked the twentieth anniversary of a unique UCS program to expand the international community of scientists working to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and increase global security.
By David Wright and Lisbeth Gronlund
In the late 1980s, Soviet scientist Roald Sagdeev wanted to train young scientists to continue the work of the aging arms control experts in his country. Working with Frank von Hippel of Princeton University, he organized a September 1989 meeting in Moscow that brought together scientists from the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States who were studying arms control issues at universities and nonprofit organizations. Sagdeev and von Hippel hoped to increase the number of non-governmental scientific experts on arms control worldwide, create a community among these experts, and foster innovative technical research and policy proposals.
The meeting was so successful that several of the participants organized a similar meeting at Princeton the following summer. What became known as the International Summer Symposiums on Science and World Affairs has been held every year since then, with the Union of Concerned Scientists Global Security Program acting as the event’s primary organizer beginning in 1994.
For eight days, the Summer Symposiums tap into the expertise and perspectives of about 40 participants who represent a variety of nations and areas of research. The meeting locations have varied as well, expanding out from Russia and the United States to China, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Ukraine.
Participants give a presentation on research they have done or plan to do related to arms control and security issues, with time afterward for group discussion. The participants live and eat together, and the meeting is structured to allow ample time for informal interactions. These interactions are important since a key goal of the Symposiums is to help ensure that the next generation of arms control experts will have personal connections with their counterparts around the world, allowing them to share information, collaborate on solving problems, and understand issues from an international point of view.
An Opportunity for Young Scientists
Over the past 20 years, nearly 400 people from 26 countries have attended one or more Summer Symposiums. Many had not even been aware that nongovernmental scientists conduct technical analyses of arms control issues, but dozens of attendees have been able to find fellowships and research positions in this field through the connections they formed at the meeting. Some have gone on to influential positions in their countries, both in and out of government.
The Summer Symposiums have also been instrumental in creating the first university-based center on arms control in the Soviet Union and three such programs in China. Indeed, the Summer Symposiums have been most influential in China, which has supplied the meetings with one-quarter of all participants. The number of technical experts in China’s arms control community has grown dramatically over the past 15 years, and these meetings have played an important role in helping to train these experts and build relationships between them and experts in other countries.
Today, a strong and growing international network of non-governmental scientists helps inform policy decisions and public debate on some of the most important security issues of our time. UCS is proud of the Summer Symposiums’ contribution to this network, and with support from our members its influence can continue to expand.
David Wright and Lisbeth Gronlund, co-directors and senior scientists in the Global Security Program, were two of the founding organizers of the Summer Symposiums.
