“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction.”
Those were the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964, while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. This year, during the annual International Day of Peace on September 21, those words were recited during the introduction of a virtual event moderated by Neil Cooper, Ph.D., professor and director of the School of Peace and Conflict Studies (SPCS) at 鶹ý, who has long been interested in arms control and peacebuilding.
Cooper has published more than 50 articles and chapters on the aspects of war, peace and international relations. He is also the co-author of a book, “War Economies in a Regional Context,” and co-editor of the book “Whose Peace?”. He and the SPCS partnered with the Read Center for International and Intercultural Education at Kent State to invite two speakers to deliver talks that explore the intersections between race, colonialism, and nuclear weapons.
Before introducing the speakers, Shampa Biswas and Vincent J. Intondi, Cooper said: “Anyone who’s seen the recent reporting of Putin’s threats of nuclear war will recognize the renewed salience of our discussions today.”
To see the full recorded event, visit:
About the speakers
Biswas is Judge and Mrs. Timothy A. Paul Chair of Political Science and Professor of Politics at Whitman College, as well as an international relations theorist specializing in post-colonial theory and nuclear politics. She is the author of Nuclear Desire: Power and the Postcolonial Nuclear Order (University of Minnesota Press, 2014).
Intondi is a Professor of History and Director of the Institute for Race, Justice, and Civic Engagement at Montgomery College. From 2009-2017, Intondi was Director of Research for American University's Nuclear Studies Institute in Washington, DC. He is the author of African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement (Stanford University Press, 2015).
Q&A with Neil Cooper
What follows is an interview with Dr. Cooper by Jim Maxwell, marketing and public relations communications specialist for the College of Arts and Sciences at 鶹ý.
Q: Is this an annual event that Kent State hosts?
A: The Read Center has regularly endeavored to mark the International Day of Peace for some years. More recently both the Read Center and SPCS have collaborated on events to mark the day. Previously, for example, we jointly co-sponsored a talk by Ray Acheson of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) - one of the oldest peace organizations in the world, originally founded in the early 1900s.
Q: Why is it important that we recognize the International Day of Peace?
A: Given KSU’s history and its connection to May 4th, discussions and debates about peace and justice have a particular salience. May 4th, of course, was rooted in student protests in response to the Vietnam War. That historical through-line means that it is particularly appropriate for Kent State faculty to be engaging with discussions about peace, freedom of speech, the right to protest and how those issues link to questions of social justice.
Q: How can a university like Kent State make an impact?
A: One response to May 4th by Kent State was to create what is now the School of Peace and Conflict Studies (originally named the Center for Peaceful Change). This, in itself, represented an important element in Kent State’s efforts to contribute to discussions about peace, and - in particular - to encourage critical interrogation of the dynamics of peace and conflict at all levels - whether in the local community, in the workplace or in the international system. Part of our ongoing role in SPCS is to equip both students and practitioners with the knowledge and skills essential to resolve conflict and promote peace (e.g. skill of mediation and negotiation).
Faculty in the school also engage in a wide variety of practical work on conflict resolution, whether in local communities in Ohio or abroad. Additionally, we provide support to a variety of local and international initiatives to build peace. These include support for the Race and Democracy in Ohio project and a workshop on Community Dialogue we are planning for February next year. We will also be hosting a delegation from Burkina Faso and neighboring countries as part of a regional peacebuilding initiative we are heavily involved in.
Likewise, the mission of the Read Center - an endowed center in the College of Education, Health and Human Services - is to create and implement programming in line with the principles of international and intercultural education – to create bridges that span cultural and communication divides and work toward mutual understanding. The work of the Read Center extends across the campus by encouraging the principles of multidisciplinary collaboration as international education impacts all fields, so collaborating with SPCS on this event represents a natural extension of the work and mission of the Read Center.
Q: What can students, faculty, and staff hope to gain from attending this event and listening to these speakers?
A: Public concern about nuclear weapons tended to decline in the aftermath of the Cold War, partly as a result of significant reductions in the number of nuclear warheads held by the nuclear weapon states and partly because there was a sense that the risks of nuclear war had sharply receded. One consequence of the war in Ukraine is that it has brought the question of nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence policy firmly back to the center stage of both foreign policy and public consciousness. Given this, the event provides an opportunity for students and faculty to gain a better understanding of how those debates relate to their own lives and their own concerns, particularly in a time of increasing turbulence in domestic and global affairs.
We also want to illustrate how political action can actually change things for the better, and that we are not inevitably doomed to an era of nuclear crisis. In particular, the period from the late 1980s through to the early 2000s was actually marked by a whole raft of arms control agreements that brought about deep reductions in nuclear weapons, banned chemical weapons and landmines, and resulted in substantial declines in global military expenditure. The aim, therefore, is to provide a realistic analysis of the acute dangers associated with nuclear politics today, but to also highlight the fact that just as there were real alternatives to a politics of resignation in the past, that remains the case today.
Q: Why is this an important collaboration for the Read Center and SPCS to co-sponsor this event?
A: The School of Peace and Conflict Studies focuses on all levels of peace and conflict from the inter-personal through to the international. The Read Center is committed to fostering international and intercultural education. We therefore share a common commitment to the promotion of greater communication and understanding between countries and communities, not least because this can serve as an important instrument of peace. To quote the founding charter of UNESCO (the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) “ignorance of each other’s way and lives has been a common cause...of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war”. But we also have a shared belief in the idea that it is also the content and the quality of international interaction that matter too.
Q: Why were these two speakers chosen?
A: Both speakers have produced highly influential work that - in different ways - connects to the theme of the event. In the case of Shampa Biswas this includes her book: Nuclear Desire: Power and the Postcolonial Order. In the book she uses the lens of postcolonial theory to interrogate the costs, exploitation and everyday violence involved in the maintenance of the nuclear weapons establishment. In contrast, Vincent Intondi’s book (African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism and the Black Freedom Movement) is an important work of history, documenting the much-neglected role of African Americans in campaigns against nuclear weapons from the Cold War onwards.
Combined together, the two speakers do a number of things. First, they question the oft-repeated trope about nuclear weapons having “kept the peace” by highlighting the various forms of violence and exploitation that has characterized the nuclear production and testing cycle, and the way this has been disproportionately experienced by black and indigenous communities in the USA, and poor communities in the Global South more generally.
Secondly, in doing this they re-center discussions about nuclear weapons on people and communities. This contrasts with much of the mainstream academic and policy debates on nuclear deterrence and arms control - both of which tends to be heavily abstracted and replete with acronyms, so much so that the impact on real human being is often lost in highly technical discussions about deterrence theory, counterforce strategies, missile gaps, second-strike capabilities, etc.
Thirdly, both speakers have succeeded in highlighting histories and experiences that have been consistently marginalized in discussions about the politics and political economy of nuclear weapons.
Finally, both speakers also challenge the assumption - even among many activists - that nuclear weapons are so distanced from peoples’ everyday lives that they are not really relevant to discussions about the politics of race, etc. In particular, they highlight the opportunity costs involved in spending billions on nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, when those funds could be spent on economic and social programs to benefit local communities. In doing this, they echo the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964 when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize (quoted above).
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