The Perfect World Needs To Be Safe Not Perfect

MOSCOW. FEBRUARY 14, 2022. PIR PRESS. “I do not think there are any perfect people. I do not think there is any perfect world. But I think we all could have a lot of fun and happiness if we learn to share power, resources and responsibilities. In this imperfect world, I am part of an outgoing generation that has not done enough to make the world safe and secure. As we hand over to the next generations of activists, deciders, practitioners and scholars, I hope I can be of use as they tackle the mess we’ve left, particularly, climate and environmental destruction, nuclear weapons, poverty and pandemics like Covid. So, the world I want is not perfect, but it must always be filled with hope, love, courage and respect,” — Dr. Rebecca Johnson, Director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy.

EDITORIAL: For this issue of Open Collar we have talked toDr. Rebecca Johnson, Director of the Acronym Institute, a scholar and an activist, a prominent figure of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a major expert in international regimes and a member of the PIR Center Advisory Board since 1994. In the 1980s, Dr. Johnson was the face of European protests against the new round of the Soviet-American arms race. In the 1990s, it was from Johnson that the world learned about the progress of the nuclear test ban negotiations. We have tried to find out a little more about Rebecca as a person: her values, feminism and disarmament, the protests outside the U.S. Air Force Base in England and being arrested, visiting Hiroshima and taking a long journey from Beijing all the way to London via Moscow in 1980s, what was it like to work on ways to ban nuclear testing and how she knew of PIR Center. However, we could not avoid talking politics on this issue.

Read the interview