Last December, 113 nations voted at the United Nations to begin the process of eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide. These nations will meet in June in an attempt to finalize negotiations and produce a treaty.
Visiting Assistant Professor of History Rebecca Gibbons, recently awarded a grant from the US Air Force Academy, will spend the next few months, with help from a student researcher, looking into the possible effects of the wave of anti-nuclear sentiment on US allies.
While the United States and other countries possessing nuclear weapons oppose the Humanitarian Pledge’s approach to banning them, the movement could gain traction and help organize and intensify resistance around the world. “It is not that this treaty will have a big effect initially,” Gibbons said, “but it will galvanize people. It is a normative endgame to stigmatize the weapons, and is affecting populations in Europe.” Read the story in Bowdoin News.