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DESCRIPTION:Ward Hayes Wilson is one of the most original minds working on 
 nuclear weapons policy today. His first scholarly article was published in 
 the foremost security studies journal in the world — Harvard’s Internationa
 l Security. His next article won the 2008 McElvaney Prize for the best essa
 y on nuclear disarmament. His work has shaken the foundations of the nuclea
 r weapons debate. He showed that atomic bombs did not force Japan to surren
 der and has challenged both the origins and efficacy of nuclear deterrence.
  Using fundamental challenges to established nuclear weapons thinking\, he 
 has created an entirely new approach to eliminating nuclear weapons.\n\nHe 
 has spoken in 23 countries\, at the Pentagon\, the State Department\, Harva
 rd\, Yale\, Stanford\, Princeton\, Georgetown\, the Naval War College\, the
  Sorbonne\, Kings College London\, Nagasaki University and many others. He 
 bested Sir Lawrence Freedman in a Chatham House debate and turned a pre-deb
 ate majority in favor of nuclear weapons at the Cambridge Union into a thre
 e to one drubbing against.\n\nHis writing reaches across ideological bounda
 ries. It has appeared in anti-nuclear journals like The Bulletin of the Ato
 mic Scientists and Nonproliferation Review\, military journals like Paramet
 ers\, Joint Force Quarterly and Revue de Défense Nationale\, foreign policy
  journals like Survival and Foreign Policy\, as well as in news media like 
 the Chicago Tribune\, the New York Times\, the Los Angeles Times and others
 .\n\nHis book It Is Possible: A Future Without Nuclear Weapons\, has been e
 ndorsed by world leaders\, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate\, four-star generals\
 , physicists\, religious leaders\, UN officials\, activists and others. Ric
 hard Rhodes calls it a “stunning\, breakthrough work.” Activist Emma Pike s
 ays\, “If you only ever read one book about nuclear weapons\, let it be thi
 s one. Easy to read\, meticulously well-reasoned\, it has an almost disarmi
 ngly straightforward answer for every conceivable challenge to the idea tha
 t a future free from nuclear weapons can exist. This guidebook for eliminat
 ing nuclear weapons will give even the most resolute cynic reason to hope t
 hat it is\, indeed\, possible.”\n\nHis book\, Five Myths About Nuclear Weap
 ons\, was endorsed by two Pulitzer-Prize-winning historians of nuclear weap
 ons\, recommended by four-star generals\, praised by a former head of state
  and Nobel Peace Prize winner\, and described as “brilliant\, original\, an
 d important.”\n\nWard has published articles in anti-nuclear journals like 
 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Nonproliferation Review\, in mili
 tary journals like Joint Force Quarterly\, Parameters\, and Revue de Défens
 e Nationale\, in foreign policy journals like Survival\, Foreign Policy\, a
 nd Harvard’s International Security\, in Ethics and International Affairs\,
  The Diplomat\, The Nation\, The Chicago Tribune\, The New York Times\, The
  Boston Globe\, The Wall Street Journal\, UPI\, The Nashville Tennessean\, 
  and others. He has also been published overseas in France’s Slate\, Costa 
 Rica’s Diario Extra\, Norway’s Dagbladet and Dagsavisen\, and others.\n\nSy
 nopsis:\n\nThe SUU Eccles APEX presentation on February 20\, 2025 featured 
 Author and Executive Director of RealistRevolt\, Ward Wilson. His presentat
 ion was titled\, “The Shadow and the Light: Hope for Our Most Difficult Pro
 blem”.\n\nWard Wilson began his presentation very simply\, “Our hardest pro
 blem\, of course\, is nuclear weapons”. He says there are three mysteries s
 urrounding nuclear weapons\, mysteries that “paradoxically are the key to u
 nlocking how to eliminate nuclear weapons”. The first mystery is this: what
  kind of ultimate tool gets used once\, and never used again? Ward Wilson q
 uestioned\, “Aren’t the best tools the ones that you use all the time?” He 
 pointed out the contradiction that “we say we rely on nuclear deterrence\, 
 we say we trust it\, we think it’s safe\, but apparently\, in private\, a l
 ot of people in their hearts harbor doubts about whether nuclear deterrence
  is going to work.”\n\nWard Wilson shared the history of nuclear arms\, beg
 inning with the Manhattan Project\, and the subsequent bombings on Hiroshim
 a and Nagasaki. “The Japanese surrendered in just four days. It was the pro
 of\, the absolute confirmation as if any were needed\, that the bombs reall
 y did confer Godlike power on their possessors.” This belief only spread\, 
 and Wilson pointed out the key beliefs: nuclear weapons were decisive in wa
 r\, the ultimate weapon capable of immense destruction\, they guaranteed sa
 fety\, and they would always exist. “We have lived with these beliefs for a
 lmost 80 years. They’ve shaped our thinking and served as the foundation of
  our policies. They are so familiar\, so completely woven into the fabric o
 f our lives that they seem axiomatic\, unquestionable.”\n\nHe further broke
  down each of these beliefs\, questioning their truth. Regarding decisivene
 ss in war\, he concluded that\, “It is not realism to imagine that killing 
 civilians can win wars.” About nuclear weapons being the ultimate weapon\, 
 he concluded that\, “Nuclear weapons are simply too big and spread too much
  poison to be practical weapons of war. Militarily\, they are effectively u
 seless.” Of their safety guarantee\, “It is not realism to rely for your se
 curity on a strategy that will inevitably end in catastrophe.” He ended\, “
 If these first three… are myths\, then the belief that there’s no way to ge
 t rid of them is also a myth.”\n\nThere is good news\, though\, which is th
 at “if we can strip away the myths around them\, we ought to be able to eli
 minate nuclear weapons and the danger of nuclear war”. Based upon this view
 \, it is possible to be rid of nuclear weapons. Ward Wilson stated that wha
 t we can do is have faith\, speak\, and embrace reality. \n\nHe finished by
  asking the audience to imagine a world without nuclear weapons. “It will n
 ot be a world without risk. It will not be a world without war\, it will no
 t be a perfect world\, but it will be a world where we won’t be haunted in 
 some corner of our brains by a fear that maybe today\, maybe tomorrow\, may
 be next week\, but someday all that we have and all that we’ve built will s
 uddenly be turned to smoke and ashes.”
DTEND:20250220T193000Z
DTSTAMP:20260306T165800Z
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GEO:37.676662;-113.068718
LOCATION:R. Haze Hunter Alumni Center (CC)\, Great Hall
SEQUENCE:0
SUMMARY:Ward Wilson - Executive Director of RealistRevolt
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_46746690026957
URL:https://events.suu.edu/event/apex-ward-wilson
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