Jonathan Schell and the moral urgency of our time
In revisiting my tribute to Jonathan Schell, written in March 2014, more than a decade after his passing, I find that his voice carries an even sharper moral resonance today. What once felt like a reflection on a towering figure in humanitarian thought has become a call to confront a world where civilian suffering is rising, international norms are eroding, and destructive technologies are expanding without restraint. Schell wrote with clarity about the human cost of war and the responsibilities of societies to prevent it. Today, his warnings feel less like history and more like a mirror held up to our present moment. His life and writings lead me back to questions that remain urgent today: the human cost of war, the moral responsibility to prevent it, and the continuing struggle for humanitarian disarmament and peace.
Jonathan Schell was one of the most influential moral voices of his generation. Born in Manhattan, he became widely known as an author, journalist, and anti war advocate who condemned wars from Vietnam to Iraq. His best selling book, The Fate of the Earth, published in 1982, remains one of the most powerful works ever written on the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons. It helped shape global thinking on nuclear disarmament and inspired generations of activists, scholars, and policymakers.
Schell began his career as a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine from 1967 to 1987. At the age of 24, he traveled to Vietnam and produced one of the most important testimonies of the war: “The Village of Ben Suc.” In this work, he documented the suffering of innocent civilians during Operation Cedar Falls. His account was not simply journalism; it was a moral witness. It forced readers to confront the human reality behind military operations and to question the logic of war itself. For many people around the world, the story of Ben Suc became a symbol of the human cost of conflict.
Schell’s moral witness did not remain confined to Vietnam. It entered the collective memory of societies that refuse to forget the suffering of civilians. That collective memory nourished the public conscience, reminding people that war is not an abstraction but a human tragedy. A strong public conscience creates responsibility, both individual and institutional, to prevent violence and protect life. And responsibility, when practiced across generations, becomes a culture of humanitarian disarmament and peace. This chain of meaning helps explain the enduring power of Schell’s contribution, and it is precisely what the world needs today.
His other books, including The Military Half, The Time of Illusion, The Abolition, The Real War, Observing the Nixon Years, The Unfinished Twentieth Century, The Unconquerable World, and A Hole in the World, expanded his moral and political analysis. They explored the limits of military power, the possibilities of nonviolence, and the responsibilities of societies in preventing war.
I never met Jonathan Schell, but through his writings I felt close to a visionary thinker who believed deeply in the dignity of human life. His work offered frameworks for disarmament and gave peace loving people strength, clarity, and courage. He understood that preventing war was not only a political challenge, but a moral one. He believed that societies must cultivate conscience, empathy, and responsibility if they are to avoid repeating the tragedies of the past.
Today, as I revisit my earlier tribute, I do so because the world is once again facing profound moral tests. We see children and women in Gaza suffering under bombardment and siege. We see the tragic killing of children in the Minab school in Iran. We see civilians caught in cycles of violence in Sudan. We see families displaced and cities destroyed in Ukraine. These events are not isolated. They reflect a global environment where fear, polarization, and militarization overshadow dialogue, justice, and human dignity.
If Jonathan Schell were to witness these scenes, he would not be surprised. His writings warned that when societies abandon humanitarian principles, violence becomes normalized. When the law is ignored, civilians pay the price. When military power is seen as the primary tool of politics, the world becomes less safe for everyone. His testimony in Ben Suc was not only a record of the past; it was a warning for the future. Today, that warning feels painfully relevant.
In this context, Schell’s legacy becomes a reminder of what is at stake. His writings urge us to confront the human consequences of violence and to defend the principles that protect life. They call on us to resist the normalization of war and to challenge the belief that military power can solve political or moral problems. They remind us that disarmament is not only a technical process, but a human and ethical commitment.
Revisiting Jonathan Schell’s legacy today is not an act of memory but an act of moral duty. His work reminds us that the protection of human life is the first responsibility of any society, and that silence in the face of suffering is itself a form of harm. In a world where violence is becoming normalized and humanitarian principles are under strain, Schell’s voice calls us to stand firm, to defend conscience, and to uphold the values that make peace possible. The world needs this clarity now. And it needs readers, writers, and advocates who are willing to carry forward the moral call for humanitarian disarmament and peace with courage, persistence, and hope.
Dr. Ghassan Shahrour is a physician, humanitarian disarmament advocate, and author on health and disability. has contributed to international discussions on human dignity, environmental accountability, and restraint in armed conflict. A campaigner with the ICBL, CMC, and ICAN, he supports global humanitarian efforts and also volunteers with the Greater Triangle Area Chapter of the American Red Cross. He also writes a recurring cultural editorial, “Yesterday through today’s eyes,” in Arabic.
More than fifteen years ago, a pioneering initiative was launched in public schools in Syria to introduce humanitarian disarmament education through the child-to-child approach. I documented part of this experience in the national school magazine Bunat Al-Ajyal as part of a series of community awareness activities. The idea was simple: children should not be viewed only as recipients of peace education. With proper guidance, they can become active participants, peer educators, and contributors to a culture that values life, dignity, cooperation, and protection from weapons that cause unacceptable harm.
Read more…Tolstoy and the moral roots of peace and disarmament
In the nineteenth century, when European powers repeatedly reshaped borders through war and states measured their strength by armies and conquests, Russia witnessed a remarkable literary flourishing known as the Golden Age of Russian literature.
This cultural moment was not only artistic. It became a moral space in which writers explored human dignity, authority, justice, violence, suffering, and the meaning of life. Seen from today’s perspective, these works can be read as early contributions to questions that would later become central to the culture of peace and disarmament.
Read more…30 years later: The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was adopted on this day — 10 September 1996 — by a vote in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). This was an unusual ending to the negotiation process that had lasted several years. Today, the CTBT is still functioning, as all signatory states are compliant with its provisions, but the treaty has still not officially entered into force.
Read more…“Let us be guided by past harms to prevent future ones”
The following remarks were delivered by Molly McGinty, IPPNW Program Director, at the International Meeting on Victim Assistance and Environmental Remediation at the UN Headquarters on September 1, 2026.
Distinguished Chair, delegates, and colleagues,
Since Trinity, the first nuclear detonation conducted 81 years ago in the desert of the Tularosa Basin of present-day New Mexico, nuclear weapons have had devastating and lasting impacts on human and planetary health. The entire nuclear weapons “life cycle” has imposed severe, long-term environmental costs and human suffering on innocent communities – spanning everything from the mining and milling of uranium and the storage of warheads to the constant threat of their use and their testing in the atmosphere, underwater, and underground.
In the name of national security, more than 2,000 nuclear weapons were detonated near people’s homes, hospitals, schools, places of worship, water supplies, fisheries, and farmland, without the consent of downwind communities.
Read more…20 years old: The Semey Treaty
The Treaty on a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in Central Asia (CANWFZ) is twenty years old on 8 September 2026. Despite being lauded by Kazachstan as: “ensuring security not only in Central Asia, but also beyond its borders”, the treaty’s protocol has still not been ratified by the United States. What does this treaty entail and why is it important?
Read more…What makes this culture of humanitarian disarmament distinctive
In my previous article, I introduced the idea of a culture of humanitarian disarmament. This article examines what makes that culture distinctive and why it matters for campaigners and public professionals.
Humanitarian disarmament is often described through treaties, legal obligations, technical measures, and operational activities. Yet these mechanisms depend on something deeper. A prohibition becomes durable when people understand why it exists, remember the harm it addresses, teach its values, and expect others to respect it.
Read more…The nuclear order can still be rebuilt
[The following letter to the editor, by IPPNW co-founder Dr. James Muller and Dr. Henry Abraham, was published in The Washington Post on 19 August.]
It was with a glimmer of hope that we read that the world is sleepwalking into a new nuclear arms race in the Aug. 17 editorial “The old global nuclear order is dead. What comes next?” The wake-up call is welcome, but the editorial advocated only limited attempts to confront the increasing danger. Incremental arms-control measures, while useful, are not an adequate response to the escalating nuclear threat.
Another danger not mentioned in the editorial is the use of artificial intelligence in nuclear weapons systems, which increases the risk of miscalculation. Ironically, Americans’ safety depends on the quality of the AI systems used in the nuclear weapons systems of North Korea and other adversaries.
As the editorial noted, in the 1980s President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came tantalizingly close to agreeing to eliminate all nuclear weapons. Their attempt was made possible by organized public opinion in favor of the abolition of all nuclear weapons. A mass movement is needed again. One hundred nations — a majority of the world’s countries — have now signed or joined the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which is the only long-term solution to the nuclear dilemma.
In a world in which nuclear weapons were outlawed, the United States, with its excellent conventional forces and protection offered by two oceans, would have little to fear. The first step toward safety, as advocated by the editorial, is for the public to awaken from its slumber and find its voice.
Taking Forward Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations
What was the United Nations “Open-Ended Working Group”?
The United Nations first established an Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) entitled “Taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations” in 2012. This UN subsidiary body was characterised by its open and interactive format, making space for deeper participation by members states, experts and civil society organisations.
Read more…Ten years on: History in the making
Landmark report recommends to the UN to negotiate a nuclearban
On 19 August 2016 a UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) fell into disarray, as one country insisted on taking a vote. The translators had gone home and the delegates had to move into a smaller room as the larger one was no longer available. The clock had been stopped, to allow the OEWG to reach a conclusion. I myself had cancelled my flight to stay to the end. This is what happened.
Read more…
Bimal Khadka
Bjorn Hilt
Charles K. Johnson
Dr. Ghassan Shahrour
Gunnar Westberg
IPPNW
John Loretz
Lawrence Wittner
Maria Valenti
mollymcgint
Sue Wareham
Tilman Ruff
Tim Wright
Xanthe Hall
