How to Save the World: Learning from Citizen Engagement on Nuclear Weapons

Approaching the task of generating a new citizen’s movement for restraint on nuclear weapons, the article reviews the history and influence of previous movements against nuclear weapons, noting that urgent policy issues do not, by themselves, generate citizen engagement. Considering prior movements, the article notes that the Scientists Campaign, the Ban the Bomb Movement, the Campaign against Anti-Ballistic Missiles, and the Nuclear Freeze, all engaged citizen activists by pointing to policy problems and offering overly simple remedies that captured public attention. Those movements included dramatic resistance actions, including civil disobedience, and more conventional institutional efforts. Partly in response to movements, authorities moderated rhetoric and policies to reduce a public sense of urgency. Subsequent movements must address contemporary policy problems and offer easily understandable potential responses and embrace a diversity of political tactics.