Nonkilling at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey
On February 5, 2019, CGNK colleague and documentary filmmaker Rich Panter gave a talk on nonkilling and the work of the center, “The Possibility of a Nonkilling Future”, for a graduate seminar at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California. Rich was invited to speak by the Director of the Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies, Anna Vassilieva, following a comment introducing nonkilling made at last Fall’s 7th Annual Fort Ross Dialogue, held in San Francisco’s Presidio.
The Ft. Ross Dialogue is an annual independent forum where Americans and Russians meet in a constructive atmosphere to encourage conversation and collaboration. A major theme underlying last Fall’s 2018 Dialogue concerned the political tensions currently between the two countries. Though not an official government-to-government event, the 2018 Dialogue attendees included several members of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – its Director of the Foreign Policy Planning Department and the Russian ambassador to the US – along with a variety of Russian and American academics and corporate executives. American dignitaries included California’s then-Governor Jerry Brown, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry.
Gov. Brown, a long-time critic of the US-Russian nuclear arms race, moderated a panel discussion with US and Russian specialists, “The Future of Scientific, Technological, and Academic Collaboration”, with Dr. Anna Vassilieva as one of the panelists. At the end of that session’s Q&A period, Rich Panter, who participated in his capacity of board member of the Ft. Ross Conservancy, which hosts this annual Dialogue, posed the following question to Gov. Brown and the panel:
“We’ve been talking all day about a number of things are two countries are doing right together… but what about something we’re both doing wrong – the threat to kill each other with nuclear weapons? I would hope that in future meetings we can talk about the subject of nonkilling. I urge everyone here to look at the website nonkilling.org”.
Several days later, Professor Vassilieva emailed Rich, saying she was “thrilled” with the comment and invited him to introduce the subject to the graduate seminar. The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, is the only place in the US with a Master’s degree program in nonproliferation. Rich’s presentation combined content from both Nonkilling Political Science and insights from the works of Yuval Noah Harari, especially from his latest book, 21 Lessson for the 21st Century. Rich also screened the video he produced for CGNK in 2007, Nonkilling: A Better Way, which remains a valuable resource both for teaching and general audiences.
