Bio
Ward Hayes Wilson
The founder and executive director of RealistRevolt is Ward Wilson.
He is widely acknowledged as the leading source of innovative pragmatic arguments against nuclear weapons in the world today.
An award-winning writer, the first scholarly article he published was a groundbreaking reappraisal that appeared in Harvard’s International Security. It argued that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the reason Japan surrendered. His second scholarly article won the prestigious McElvany Prize which came with a $10,000 award.
He has also done path-finding work in reframing the nuclear weapons debate, rebutting claims that deterrence is reliable and safe, and the social costs of keeping nuclear weapons—whether they are used or not.
On the steps of the Scottish National Parliament
His new book, Eliminating Nuclear Weapons: A Field Manual, has received remarkable advance praise:
“Truly a masterpiece.”
— Barry Blechman, co-founder of the Stimson Center
“The most intelligent, comprehensive, and compelling argument ever advanced against nuclear weapons.”
— General Lee Butler, U.S. Air Force (ret.), former commander, STRATCOM
“Ward Wilson's book makes me believe that the eradication of nuclear weapons is . . . feasible in our lifetime.”
— Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner
“You owe it to yourself to hear this remarkable message of hope.”
— Joe Morris Doss, Episcopal Bishop (ret.):
“Arguably the most important contribution to the debate over the efficacy/fallacy of nuclear deterrence ever written.”
— Martin Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize winning historian of nuclear weapons:
PUBLICATIONS
His book, Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons, was endorsed by two Pulitzer-Prize-winning historians of nuclear weapons, recommended by four-star generals, praised by a former head of state and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and described as “brilliant, original, and important.”
Ward has published articles in anti-nuclear journals like The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Nonproliferation Review, in military journals like Joint Force Quarterly, Parameters, and Revue de Défense Nationale, in foreign policy journals like Survival, Foreign Policy, and Harvard’s International Security, in Ethics and International Affairs, The Diplomat, The Nation, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, UPI, The Nashville Tennessean, and others. He has also been published overseas in France’s Slate, Costa Rica’s Diario Extra, Norway’s Dagbladet and Dagsavisen, and others.
TELEVISION AND VIDEO
He has appeared on international, national, regional, and cable television shows, including Worlds Apart with Oksana Boyko on RT, Sin Rodeos in Costa Rica, The Link in Iran, The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Global Connections TV with Bill Miller, and others. He was the subject of a documentary, Rethinking Nuclear Weapons, produced by the International Law Policy Institute in Norway, a short-form video titled Six Myths About Nuclear Weapons from Talkworks in the United Kingdom, and he appeared in the full-length documentary The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons, produced by Álvaro Orús.
RADIO AND PODCASTS
Ward has appeared on national and regional radio, including Stand Up with Pete Dominick (Sirius), Topical Currents, (WLRN, Miami), The Leonard Lopate Show, (WNYC, New York), Radio Times with Marty Moss Coane, (WHYY, Philadelphia), The Forum, (KQED, San Francisco), Access Utah with Tom Williams, (Utah Public Radio, Utah), The Daily Circuit, (MNPR, Minnesota), The Roundtable with Joe Donahue, (WAMC), America, Armed and Free, (KVOI-AM, Tucson), WCCO-AM (Minnesota), and others.
He podcast appearances include The Rob Kall Bottom Up Show, Something’s Off with Andrew Heaton, and Off the Shelf with Yvonne Wolf.
SPEAKING
Ward has considerable experience with public speaking. He has debated distinguished professor Sir Lawrence Freedman at Chatham House, with former Under Secretary of State Christopher Ford, crossed swords with a group of elite French officials and think tank intellectuals in Paris (including a former commander of French nuclear missile submarine forces), but the most daunting audience he ever faced was at Portcullis House in London with three former foreign ministers, two former defense ministers, two admirals, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, members of the House of Lords, a founder of the Liberal Democratic Party, and others in attendance.
He has spoken in 23 countries on six continents. He has spoken at government venues: the United Nations (New York), the United Nations (Geneva), the U.S. Department of State, the Scottish National Parliament, the French Assemblée Nationale, the Norwegian Stortinget, the House of Commons (United Kingdom), the Swiss Foreign Ministry, the Belgian Parliament, the A-10 Directorate of the Pentagon, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, the Senate of the Czeck Republic, the Costa Rican National Assembly, the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry, the Mexican Foreign Ministry, the Defense Committee of the European Parliament, and others.
He has spoken in academic settings: Harvard University, the U.S. Naval War College, Princeton University, the Sorbonne, George Mason University, Yale, United Nations University of Peace (Costa Rica), the Institute for Advanced Study, Aberystwyth University (Wales), The New School, Stanford University, the Monterey Institute, Dowling College, Georgetown University, Monash University (South Africa), University of Pretoria (South Africa), Hampshire, Amherst, George Washington University, University of Hamburg (Germany), Nagasaki University (Japan), and others.
He has spoken at conference, churches, synagogues, activist meetings, think tanks, associations, NGOs, clinics, bookstores, Rotary and other clubs, high schools, foundations, and the living rooms of friends.