Bio

WARD HAYES WILSON

Ward Hayes Wilson is one of the most original minds working on nuclear weapons policy today. His first scholarly article was published in the foremost security studies journal in the world — Harvard’s International Security. His next article won the 2008 McElvaney Prize for the best essay on nuclear disarmament.

“Brilliant, original, and important.”

Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian

His work has shaken the foundations of the nuclear weapons debate. He showed that atomic bombs did not force Japan to surrender, and has challenged both the origins and efficacy of nuclear deterrence.

He is a powerful speaker. A recent talk at Kings College London inspired a young man to reverse his decision to join Britain’s nuclear forces. He has spoken in 23 countries, at the Pentagon, the State Department, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Georgetown, the Naval War College, the Sorbonne, Kings College London, Nagasaki University and many others.

He wins debates. He bested Sir Lawrence Freedman in a Chatham House debate and turned a pre-debate majority in favor of nuclear weapons at the Cambridge Union into a three to one drubbing against.

His writing reaches across ideological boundaries. It has appeared in anti-nuclear journals like The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Nonproliferation Review, military journals like Parameters, Joint Force Quarterly and Revue de Défense Nationale, foreign policy journals like Survival and Foreign Policy, as well as in news media like the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and others.

Using fundamental challenges to established nuclear weapons thinking, he has created an entirely new approach to eliminating nuclear weapons.

PUBLICATIONS

His book It Is Possible: A Future Without Nuclear Weapons, has been endorsed by world leaders, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, four-star generals, physicists, religious leaders, UN officials, activists and others. Richard Rhodes calls it a “stunning, breakthrough work.” Activist Emma Pike says, “If you only ever read one book about nuclear weapons, let it be this one. Easy to read, meticulously well-reasoned, it has an almost disarmingly straightforward answer for every conceivable challenge to the idea that a future free from nuclear weapons can exist. This guidebook for eliminating nuclear weapons will give even the most resolute cynic reason to hope that it is, indeed, possible.”

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.

His podcast appearances include The Rob Kall Bottom Up Show, Something’s Off with Andrew Heaton, and Off the Shelf with Yvonne Wolf, 10,000 Heroes with Ankur Shah, and The Derek Duvall Show with Derek Duvall.

SPEAKING

Ward is a sought after public speaker 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), and he has debated in the oldest continuously running debating society in the world — the Cambridge Union.

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, and foundations.