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The Woman inside the Negotiations: Alva Myrdal's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 1961–1982
Author(s) -
Herman Sondra R.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/0149-0508.00102
Subject(s) - disarmament , pledge , political science , treaty , commission , nuclear weapon , negotiation , law , peace movement , diplomacy , arms control , nuclear strategy , politics
Alva Myrdal, Sweden's chief negotiator at the United Nations Eighteen Nation Disarmament Commission, devoted the last twenty years of her life (up to 1982) to nuclear disarmament. With a powerful antinuclear women's movement behind her, Myrdal offered proposals such as nuclear‐free zones, a no‐first‐strike pledge by the nuclear powers, and a comprehensive nuclear test ban monitored by seismic stations and satellites. She asserted that the escalating arms race was irrational as well as dangerous. Disarmament would bring far greater security to both superpowers and all the peoples of the world. Because no real disarmament followed the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty in 1971, she considered her efforts a failure. However, she had demonstrated women's leadership ability in a technically complex and crucial area of cold war diplomacy, and her proposals bore fruit later.