Overview

9.00am Plenary: The nuclear legacy: the Pacific region from testing ground to global disarmament advocacy Chair: Simone Turchetti Panelists: Robert Bo Jacobs, Hinamouera Morgant-Cross, David Robie, Karly Burch

The Pacific region and New Zealand have played and play a pivotal role in nuclear disarmament campaigns especially by sponsoring the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the United Nations. This advocacy is rooted in the region's experience as a testing ground during the Cold War as the US carried out its nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, the UK in Australia and France in Polynesia. The consequences of these nuclear explosions are still felt today through (at times fatal) health issues for local survivors, environmental damage and a streak to compensation claims now nurturing a new disarmament movement seeking to inform global decision making on nuclear weapons. Above and beyond these issues, the quest for nuclear justice and disarmament runs counter global asymmetries as Pacific (especially indigenous) voices continue to be underrepresented in decision-making on nuclear weapons. This roundtable seeks therefore to explore regional and global connections between nuclear past and present in an open dialogue between scholars and campaigners envisioning a nuclearly disarmed future.

Lead presenting author(s)