Global Histories of Peace and Anti-Nuclear Activism

The Global Peace Research Network (GPRN) will provide a global perspective of the study of anti-nuclear and peace activism since 1945. While most existing scholarship on opposition to nuclear weapons remains focused on Western Europe and North America, the GPRN will work with nine universities and NGOs across five continents to offer global and interdisciplinary perspectives.

One core activity of the Network is to host themed workshops at partner institutions in five different countries, forging a dialogue with a range of academic and non-academic actors. Each workshop will explore a broad, global theme through a uniquely local lens. For example, the Brazil workshop will examine the impact of nuclear accidents on attitudes towards, and opposition to, nuclear weapons. Rather than focus on more well-known examples such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, however, we will 'de-centre' the narrative by exploring a local example, namely the 1987 radiological accident that occurred in Goiânia, where the workshop will be held. By bringing together local and international participants, each workshop will give a voice to overlooked actors and events and will generate new insights.

Each workshop will involve academics from several disciplines, policymakers, activists and NGOs. Network partners include historians, political scientists, IR scholars, and peace studies experts, as well as the head of research and policy at a global NGO, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). As such, in addition to the geographical scope of the network with partners across five continents, the proposed Network will cross disciplinary boundaries and foster genuine cooperation between academics and NGOs. The involvement of ICAN is central to the project, as they will help inform the research questions, provide important voices at each workshop, and will help disseminate our outputs to partner NGOs and activists around the world.

We will produce a number of outputs. We will publish a policy paper with LSE IDEAS, the world's top-ranked university-affiliated think-tank, in coordination with ICAN, and our project website will include designated resources for activists, including a guide on anti-nuclear activism to educate current activists on the historical and geographical scope of this cause. We will also produce an edited volume and a special issue of a journal.

In addition, this network will produce an innovative Digital Peace Archive (DPA), featuring documents, images, and campaign materials from activists and groups from around the world. Each workshop will include a call for participants and members of the public to contribute suitable material from that region to be added to the archive, and will be supplemented by oral histories and interviews, as well as explanatory essays to engage and educate the public, researchers, practitioners, and teachers. We will work closely with the Wilson Center, which has produced a highly successful digital archive of government documents from around the world. The DPA will complement the Wilson Center's digital archive by providing a wide range of materials from non-state actors. By disseminating new insights through our outputs and making widely accessible archival materials from peace organisations, the project will facilitate the use of bottom-up resources from a range of countries, enabling researchers to offer more global and well-rounded studies of nuclear history.

We will also produce a free, open access online course (e.g. a MOOC), hosted by the Open University's OpenLearn platform (ca 13.5 million visitors per year). This course will be available to individuals around the world who will be able to engage with the insights and outputs of the project. Existing OU MOOCs have been completed by individuals in over 100 countries, and this global reach will allow us to ensure the findings of our project are accessed by individuals around the world.