2013.04.12

グローバル・ゼロ

Dear Yoshiki,
On April 5 — the fourth anniversary of President Obama’s historic speech in Prague calling for a world without nuclear weapons — Global Zero student leaders worldwide publicly displayed excerpts of the speech as part of our grassroots campaign urging Obama to take bold action to make that vision a reality. We also delivered to a top White House official a letter to the President from 75 former prime ministers, foreign and defense ministers and military commanders — as well as a European Parliament declaration — calling for multilateral negotiations to reduce nuclear arms.
We are on a major roll. Over the past several weeks, President Obama announced that he will seek further cuts in U.S.-Russian arsenals and Global Zero founding member Senator Chuck Hagel was confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Defense. Actors, musicians and major organizations have gotten involved in our campaign. Global Zero released a 2-minute video narrated by Michael Douglas, which aired in broadcast interviews with Her Majesty Queen Noor and former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson on MSNBC, CNN, Yahoo News and The Huffington Post. The campaign was promoted on social media by the United Nations, Greenpeace, Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Branson, Ashton Kutcher, Yoko Ono, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Serj Tankian and Tom Morello, among many others. We also launched our brand new website.
Global Zero student leaders sent messages and photos from all over the world for our Valentine’s Day campaign, which featured photos of the people, places and things that they love and want to protect from nuclear disaster.
In Moscow, 50 Russian university students participated in a Global Zero session on nuclear weapons issues with Global Zero leaders Dr. Andrei Kortunov and former Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, cosponsored by the Russian International Affairs Council.
In Paris, following the publication of their new book on the elimination of nuclear weapons and the Global Zero Action Plan, Arrêtez la bombe!, Global Zero leaders Gen. (Ret.) Bernard Norlain and former Defense Minister Paul Quilés discussed movement-building strategies with a select group of 40 students at Panthéon-Sorbonne University.
In the United States, the Global Zero chapter at Davidson College hosted a “Bike Around the Bomb” 50-km race, tracing the blast radius of a nuclear bomb; Amb. Steven Pifer participated in a discussion hosted by the Boston College Global Zero chapter focusing on challenges to nonproliferation; Global Zero U.S. Chair Amb. Richard Burt met with students at Georgetown University to discuss the Global Zero movement; and Global Zero Co-Founder Dr. Bruce Blair testified before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on the security and financial benefits of further U.S. nuclear weapons reductions.
We are very pleased to welcome our outstanding new regional organizer, Anita Poushan, to the Global Zero team. Additionally, Global Zero’s U.S. office has moved to its new address:
1436 U Street NW, Suite 401
Washington, DC 20009
United States
Thank you, as always, for your leadership and support.