Lecture at 55-Plus Club of Princeton

“Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons: Challenging the Nuclear Gospel” will be the topic of a presentation by Ward Wilson, senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, at the meeting of 55-Plus at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, January 3, 2013, at the Jewish Center of Princeton, 435 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ. Everyone is welcome. Admission is free, with a $3 donation suggested. 

For the first time since the end of the Cold War there is a major re-evaluation of nuclear weapons underway.  The impact of this radical rethinking is sweeping — major revisions of fundamental ideas are emerging that will leave nuclear weapons policy profoundly changed. How much should this new evidence and research influence decisions to rely on nuclear deterrence for security?  Wilson will preview some of the arguments in his new book, Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons, which will be available from Houghton Mifflin on January 15, 2013.

Ward Wilson is a senior fellow of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He graduated from American University, where he majored in history.  After internships in Congress and the Office of Management and Budget, he became a Robert Kennedy Memorial Fellow. He developed a deep interest in nuclear weapons issues that led to publications in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The New York Times, and Dissent, among others, and to participation in many invited colloquia at universities and NGO’s in the US and abroad.  In February of 2010 he received a substantial grant from the Foreign Ministry of Norway in support of basic research, writing, and speaking.

55-Plus was organized in 1986 as a non-sectarian group to promote social contacts and friendships among men and women who are either retired or who have flexible working hours.  Members meet at 10 a.m., usually on the first and third Thursday mornings of each month (except late June, July and August) to listen to and discuss a wide range of topics presented by prominent speakers. 55-Plus meetings are open to the general public.