Tag Archives: Iran

Catalytic Diplomacy for Peace

Catalytic Diplomacy for Peace: Lessons Learned from the Half Century of Experience of Two Swarthmore Graduates

Jeremy J. Stone ‘57 Swarthmore College, Honorary Doctor of Laws for peace activities ’85 and B.J. Stone, ’57

On April 19, 2016, Dr. Jeremy Stone spoke to approximately 150 students in Science Center Room 101 at Swarthmore College*

Creative ideas, pursued with personal diplomacy through political structures, can make a real difference to peace and conflict. Stone will reference successes and failures. These include inventing five tabled Washington-Moscow Summit arms control proposals. They also include: catalytic undertakings in initiating scientific exchange with China, Vietnam and Iran; efforts to end the Cambodian civil war; stabilizing the conflict between Mainland China and Taiwan; defending human rights in Russia and Constitutional rights in America; and a series of failures to reverse current American doctrine on first use of nuclear weapons.

Jeremy Stone in Science Center 101

Dr. Jeremy J. Stone graduated from Swarthmore College in 1957 before going on to complete a Ph.D. in mathematics from Stanford University. After holding positions at the Hudson Institute,  the Harvard Center for International Affairs (CFIA), and Pomona College, he became the CEO of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS)–founded in 1945 as the Federation of Atomic Scientists (FAS)– which focused on policy related to the nuclear arms race, human rights, ethnic violence and civil conflict, small arms, controlling biological and chemical weapons, energy conservation, global warming, and other related subjects.

Jeremy Stone

Through what Stone calls “catalytic diplomacy” and with the assistance of his wife, B.J. Stone ’57, they shaped a range of negotiations over nuclear weapons during the Cold War, played a key role in renewing scientific exchange with U.S. and China (1972) and U.S. and Iran (1999), and worked to contain super-Maoist movements in North Korea, Cambodia and Peru, among other topics.

Dr. Jeremy Stone

Swarthmore College awarded Dr. Stone an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1985 for his career pursuing peace as a public interest activist. He is the author of two books on arms control: Containing the Arms Race: Some Specific Proposals (MIT Press, 1966) and Strategic Persuasion: Arms Limitations Through Dialogue (Columbia University Press, 1967) as well as two memoirs: Every Man Should Try: Adventures of a Public Interest Activist (Public Affairs Press, 1999) and Catalytic Diplomacy: Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

Stone testimony

Dr. Jeremy Stone ’57 lecturing, in June, 1979, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the arms limitation treaty called SALT II. The Senators from left to right are: Charles Percy, Jacob Javits, Frank Church, George McGovern, and Joseph Biden.

Stone and Zhou En-lai

Dr. Jeremy Stone ’57 and his wife, B.J. Stone ’57, in 1972, negotiating, after dinner, with Prime Minister Zhou En-lai of the People’s Republic of China in 1972–a month after relations with Communist China were opened by President Nixon.

Sponsored by the Program in Peace and Conflict Studies and Catalytic Diplomacy

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(*The video above is a re-recording of the lecture Dr. Stone delivered at Swarthmore College.)

Prof. Dominic Tierney Launches Iran War Clock

It’s 10 Minutes to Midnight: Political Scientist Dominic Tierney Launches Iran War Clock

by Susan Clarey

3/15/2012

[original post from Swarthmore College News and Information http://www.swarthmore.edu/x35177.xml]

Iran clock Three students – Jonathan Emont ’12, Lorand Laskai ’13, and James Mao ’12 – provided essential research assistance.

TheAtlantic.com recently launched The Iran War Clock created and directed by Dominic Tierney, associate professor of political science.

Drawing together a panel of 22 high-profile experts from the worlds of policy, academia, and journalism, The Iran War Clock reflects the average of each contributor’s estimate that war will break out in Iran in the next year.  Based on this number, the Clock is adjusted so that the hand moves closer to, or further away from, midnight.

The aim of the project is to estimate the chances of war while producing a more informed debate on this highly-charged subject.

“Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the Iran War Clock is correct in March 2012 and there’s roughly a 50/50 chance of war,” Tierney explains. “Americans need to have an accurate view of this reality. If they wrongly thought there was just a 1 percent chance of conflict it could be dangerous. And if Americans misperceived and felt there was a 99 percent chance of war, this could also be hazardous.

“When you approach the cliff edge,” he says, “you need to know how far away the precipice is.”

In a Sunday interview with MSNBC’S Alex Witt, Tierney discussed what he called the “dream team” of panelists working on The Iran War Clock and explained the methodology behind it.

Three students provided research assistance: Jonathan Emont ’12, an Honors history major and political science minor from Ridgewood, N.J.; Lorand Laskai ’13, an Honors political science major and a course history major from Berkely Heights, N.J.; and James Mao ’12, an Honors political science major and economics minor with a course major in economics, from Beijing, People’s Republic of China.