Kansas City NNSA/Honeywell Watch

Lawrence Wittner’s three part series on the history of the disarmament movement is one of the most comprehensive pieces of work put together on this issue. The third part in his series “Toward Nuclear Abolition” covers the freeze movement in great detail, especially from the Grassroots perspective.

Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement

July 20 2009, 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m EST

Drawing upon extensive research in the files of peace and disarmament organizations, government records, as well as interviews with former officials, anti-nuclear activists, and others, Lawrence Wittner will discuss the history of the anti-nuclear movement from its origins in the aftermath of World War II, up through the present day. Joining Wittner for the discussion will be historian and former chief editor of the Foreign Relations of the United States series David S. Patterson, and retired U.S. arms control negotiator Stan Riveles.

Lawrence S. Wittner is professor of history at the State University of New York at Albany where he teaches on U.S. foreign policy history, the history of social movements in the U.S., and other topics. Wittner is the recipient of a number of fellowships and research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the United States Institute of Peace, and the MacArthur Foundation, among others. His publications include The Struggle Against the Bomb trilogy, and most recently, Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the Nuclear Disarmament Movement.

David S. Patterson is a historian who has served in both academia and government. Besides teaching at major universities, he was for many years chief editor of the Foreign Relations of the United States series at the U.S. Department of State. He is author of Toward a Warless World: The Travail of the American Peace Movement, 1887-1914, and several articles in the fields of diplomatic, peace, and women’s history. His most recent book is The Search for Negotiated Peace: Women’s Activism and Citizen Diplomacy in World War I.

Stan Riveles is a retired arms control negotiator and a consultant at the Institute for Defense Analyses. As Commissioner to the Standing Consultative Commission from 1994-2000 he was the top U.S. ABM Treaty negotiator, and in this capacity was nominated to receive the rank of Ambassador. Earlier in his career he played a central role in the negotiation of the INF and START I treaties as a member of the INF and START negotiating teams and as chairman of the Interagency INF and START Backstopping Committees which prepared instructions for the negotiators. From 2001-2006, he was senior counselor to the Secretary of State’s Science and Technology Adviser and negotiated the first bilateral S&T agreement for homeland security with Canada signed June 2004. Dr. Riveles received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.