From Hiroshima to Today: Nuclear Weapons, Global Governance, and the Search for Lasting Peace

The atomic bomb fundamentally changed the nature of war—and sparked a new debate about whether the international system was capable of governing weapons powerful enough to threaten humanity itself. In the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Citizens for Global Solutions co-founder Norman Cousins warned that nuclear weapons would not remain the possession of a single country, but would instead lead to an arms race and force humanity to rethink how nations manage conflict. His response was not simply a call for disarmament, but for stronger systems of international cooperation and global governance capable of preventing disputes from escalating into war.

More than 80 years later, those questions remain strikingly relevant. Nuclear weapons continue to shape international security, geopolitical competition, and debates over deterrence, disarmament, and non-proliferation. At the same time, the international institutions created in the aftermath of World War II face growing questions about whether they are equipped to prevent conflict and respond to today’s security challenges.

This Global Conversations event will bring together perspectives on the history of the world federalist movement with an expert in nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament to examine the relationship between nuclear weapons, peace, and global governance. Beginning with the atomic bombings of 1945 and Norman Cousins’ influential Modern Man Is Obsolete, the conversation will explore how the nuclear age helped inspire calls for stronger international institutions and why thinkers such as Cousins and Albert Einstein argued that humanity needed new ways of governing relations among nations.

The discussion will then bring these ideas into the present day: What is the current state of nuclear proliferation? Does nuclear deterrence make the world safer or perpetuate an unacceptable risk? How effective are today’s treaties and international institutions in preventing the spread and use of nuclear weapons? And what reforms to global governance could move the international community from managing the threat of nuclear war toward preventing it?

Ultimately, the conversation will ask a question that has been central to CGS since its founding: In a world where humanity possesses the ability to destroy itself, what systems of global cooperation and governance are necessary to build lasting peace?