3 Summary of Session 4

In this session, you have learned how different governments have responded to anti-nuclear activists and calls for nuclear disarmament. You saw how in some cases, large-scale activism simply was not feasible, as in apartheid South Africa or the Soviet Union. In democracies where anti-nuclear activists can share their message freely, they have sometimes been targeted by the ruling party or government, as you saw in the case of the UK in the 1980s. Conversely, the relationship between grassroots activists and political leaders can be very constructive, as you saw with the example of the Six Nation Initiative. This range of government responses can also be seen with more recent initiatives such as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which has been championed by some governments and rejected by others.

In the next session you’ll explore what impact anti-nuclear activists have had on policymakers.

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