Dear Friend,

Sometimes in our campaign to abolish nuclear weapons it can feel as if the odds are stacked against us. Those who want to keep nuclear weapons are powerful, with funds to spare to promote their agenda and to seek to discredit research that contradicts their objectives. In May, the Guardian revealed that France spent €90,000 to discredit peer-reviewed scientific evidence that they consistently underestimated the humanitarian impact of French nuclear detonations. The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense has a Nuclear Deterrence Fund of at least £3.3 million as a “pilot programme” to support research on nuclear deterrence "aligned with the priorities" of the UK government. And these are just a few examples that we know about.

We don’t see millions being spent to fund research in support of disarmament. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t make a difference with what we do have. ICAN’s Critical Nuclear Weapons Scholarship has led to field work and the publication of numerous peer-reviewed articles on issues the nuclear-armed states would hope would never see the light of day. Scholars have examined nuclear disarmament activism and art in the Pacific, a forgotten nuclear weapons factory in the UK and the women-led movement against it, the representation and valuing of nuclear weapons in video games and nuclear politics in Israel and Palestine.

Our annual report on nuclear weapons spending draws attention to the vast sums being squandered on weapons of mass destruction - and is cited across mainstream media headlines and by political leaders at the United Nations.

ICAN has helped to build a community of nuclear disarmament researchers, including through support for disarmament research conferences at the University of Pretoria and the University of Bradford and on the sidelines of meetings of states parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We engage actively to support UN-convened panels of scientific researchers on nuclear disarmament and nuclear impacts, including the TPNW Scientific Advisory Group and its network of experts and the new UN Scientific Panel on the Effects of Nuclear War.

More importantly, we help research have an impact, sharing key findings for our partners to use in their advocacy and connecting researchers with policy makers. Research fuels public communications and media, editorials and presentations to policy makers.  

We don’t have the millions that nuclear-armed states - and their allies - can use to influence the debate, but we do have a diverse and committed community contributing their voices and research to expand the debate, including to demonstrate the devastating consequences of nuclear weapons and the feasibility of nuclear disarmament.

As Margaret Mead famously said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has".

Onwards, 

Alicia