The MIT Nuclear Weapons Education Project: Raising Awareness in the Next Generation of Leaders

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Nuclear Weapons Education Project is a grassroots effort among faculty, students, and alumni to bring information about nuclear weapons into the classroom at MIT and other universities around the world. The Nuclear Weapons Education Project focuses its efforts on developing and distributing educational materials about the science, history, and impact of nuclear weapons for use by college professors, lecturers, and other educators in their curricula. This paper summarizes the purpose and objectives of the project, its significance and long-term goals, its current status and observed impact, and next steps. There is a need for greater education on nuclear weapons topics, particularly because nuclear weapons and the risk of nuclear war has receded from public consciousness over the last two decades. The majority of students today were born after the end of the Cold War, and until the last two years, the existence of nuclear weapons has had relatively little impact on their day-to-day life and their understanding of the world. The MIT Nuclear Weapons Education Project seeks to raise student interest in nuclear weapons issues, provide them with more information and research resources on the topic, and raise the baseline understanding of nuclear issues among college graduates. The long-term objective of this work is to expose current students to the importance and complexity of nuclear weapons and their impact on global politics and stability in order to better prepare the next generation of leaders to address this important issue.