Statement of Opposition to the Policy of Threat and Use of Nuclear Weapons in Preemptive Strikes Against Non-nuclear States, as reaffirmed in the Presidential National Security Strategy announced March 16, 2006

The undersigned Nobel Laureates, Past and Elect Presidents of the American Physical Society, members of the US National Academy of Sciences and Professors at US universities, all members of the physics profession that brought nuclear weapons into existence, affirm that:

This dangerous policy change ignores the fact that nuclear weapons are on a completely different scale than other WMD's and conventional weapons. Using a nuclear weapon pre-emptively and against a non-nuclear adversary crosses a line, blurring the sharp distinction that exists between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons, and heightens the probability of future use of nuclear weapons by others.

It provides a strong incentive for countries to abandon the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and pursue nuclear weapons themselves and dramatically increases the risk of nuclear proliferation, and ultimately the risk that regional conflicts will explode into all-out nuclear war, with the potential to destroy our civilization.

We express our repudiation of these dangerous policies in the strongest possible terms.

Please see Petition by Physicists on nuclear weapons policy for full text of statement and complete list of signatories and to add your name.

Signatories

Philip W. Anderson , Nobel Prize, Physics, 1977; Jerome Friedman , Nobel Prize, Physics, 1990, President, American Physical Society, 1999; Anthony Leggett, Nobel Prize, Physics, 2003 ; Douglas Osheroff, Nobel Prize, Physics, 1996 ; Norman Ramsey, Nobel Prize, Physics, 1989 ; Jack Steinberger, Nobel Prize, Physics, 1988 ; Daniel Tsui, Nobel Prize, Physics, 1998 ; Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize, Physics, 1979 Frank Wilczek, Nobel Prize, Physics, 2004

Eugen Merzbacher, President, American Physical Society, 1990 ; Andrew Sessler, President, American Physical Society, 1998 ; George Trilling, President, American Physical Society, 2001 ; Leo Kadanoff, President-elect, American Physical Society National Medal of Science, 1999.

Edward Witten, Fields Medal, 1990 ;Michael Fisher, Wolf Prize, 1980 ; Daniel Kleppner, Wolf Prize, 2005

National Academy of Science members:
Elihu Abrahams, Eric Adelberger, Stephen Adler, Gunther Ahlers, Barry Barish, Elias Burstein, Manuel Cardona, Morrel Cohen, Mary Gaillard, Howard Georgi, Bertrand Halperin, Ernest Henley, Pierre Hohenberg, John Holdren, Roman Jackiw, Joel Lebowitz, Patrick Lee, Elliot Lieb, Paul Martin, Christopher McKee, N. David Mermin, Joseph Polchinski, Jack Sandweiss, Irwin Shapiro, Leonard Susskind, Lincoln Wolfenstein,

Professors of Physics at U.S. Universities:
Jorge Hirsch,Charles F. Driscoll, Sunil Sinha, Kim Griest, Donald R. Fredkin, Thomas M. O'Neil,Massimiliano Di Ventra, Xuong Nguyen-Huu,Benjamin Grinstein,Daniel Arovas,Hume Feldman, Stanton J. Peale,Frank Wuerthwein,Adam Falk,Adrian Melott, Nils Halverson,James Dolan,Kenneth Intriligator,Sheldon Schultz, Alan Weinstein,Robert,James,Christopher Henley,William Halperin, Arthur J. Freeman,Pradeep Kumar,Peter Hirschfeld,Paul Heiney, Arthur Wolfe,John Ketterson,Theodore L Einstein, Jon Holtzman, Nigel Goldenfeld, Mchael Weissman ,Andre de Gouvea, James Sethna, Jacqueline Krim, Vijay Balasubramanian, Steven Carlip, David Ceperley, Eric Hudson, Rafael Sorkin, Allen Miller, Luca , William McGlinn, John Friedman, Aiyalam Balachandran, Xerxes Tata, Tao Han, Howard Baer, Jose F Nieves, Marcelo Ubriaco, Sumit Das, James Vary, Farhad Zadeh, Gustaaf Brooijmans, Duncan Steel, Miklos Gyulassy, Robert Seiringer, James Allen, David Helfand, Philip Pearle, Eduardo Ponton, Eric Mazur, Shiraz Minwalla, Lawrence Hall, Hong Liu, Mary K Gaillard, Leonid Levitov, Paul Selvin,Veit Elser, Moshe Gai, Daniel Fisher, Michelle Wang, Scott Pratt, irwin shapiro,Scott Hughes, Shamit Kachru, Christopher F. McKee, Eduardo Fradkin, Tai Chiang,Sol Gruner, Charles Schwartz, Ian Robinson, Austin Gleeson, Willy Fischler, Deborah K. Fygenson, Gabriel Cwilich, August Evrard, Frederik de Wette, Richard Wilson, Philip J. Morrison, Susan Coppersmith, Vladimir Vassiliev, Paul Wiegmann, Troy Carter, Elisabeth Gwinn, Toby Burnett, Karoly Holczer, Fred Rieke, David B. Kaplan, Richard Hazeltine, Itai Cohen, Thomas Sandin, Alvin Saperstein, Joseph Formaggio, Yia-Chung Chang, Sohrab Ismail-Beigi, Richard Galik, Philip Phillips, Leonardo Rastelli, Gerald Meisner, Forrest Mozer, Giovanni Zocchi, Michael Bretz, Charles Henderson, Stuart Bale, Greg Dash, Ann Nelson, Edward Stern, Kannan Krishnan, Melissa Dancy, Chris Regan, Yildirim Aktas, Douglas Beck, Lawrence Shepley, James Bardeen, Sarah L. Keller, William Holzapfel, Robert Tripp, Vera Kistiakowsky, George Clark, George Bertsch, Zdeslav Hrepic, Michael Raymer, Sunil Golwala, Daniel Ben-Avraham, Mark Oreglia, William Wing, Fiona Harrison, Ernst Bauer, David Ritson, Krishna Rajagopal, W. Gilbert Clark, Barry Barish, Michael Marder, Vladimir Chaloupka, Amber Miller, Samuel Danagoulian, Morton K., Vahe' Petrosian, Irfan Siddiqi, Piet Brouwer, Mariangela Bernardi, Sherman Frankel, B. Thomas Soifer, Steven Penn, Steven Rolston, Markus Luty, James Drake, Bill Dorland, T. Venky Venkatesan, Douglas C. Hamilton, Kara Hoffman, James Griffin, Roger Rusack, Charles Misner, Earl Peterson, Jonathan Rosner, Kristjan Haule, Andrei Ruckenstein, Piers Coleman, Thomas Banks, Brad Marston, Morrel Cohen, Erick Weinberg, Sidney Redner, Michel Janssen, James Valles, Andrea Liu, Douglas Durian, Terry Matilsky, Martin Schmaltz, Sunil Somalwar, Ulrich Heinz, Anatoli Polkovnikov, Smitha Vishveshwara, Stuart Raby, Kenneth Lane, Tin-Lun Ho, L. Stanley Durkin, Samir Mathur, Chris Hammel, Matthias Neubert, Roger S. Jones, Yuri Kovchegov, Michael Lisa, Norton Hintz, J Woods Halley, Priscilla Cushman, Michael DuVernois, Harold Zapolsky, Keith Olive, J. Ritchie Patterson, Julia Meyer, Mel Shochet, Paul Stevenson, Marjorie Corcoran, Thomas Hill, Noemie Koller, Theodore Jacobson, Martin Rocek, Gene Sprouse, Paul Grannis, Stephen Teitel, Lukas Novotny, Eva Silverstein, Govind Agrawal, William Forrest, Judith Pipher, Zoran Ninkov, Max Tegmark, Dan McCammon, John Klauder, Michael Widom, Guido Mueller, R. Sekhar Chivukula, Benjamin Chandran, Thomas Duguet, Bernard Pope, Laura Baudis, Ellen Zweibel, Giorgio Gratta, Carl Schmidt, Eugen Merzbacher, Ronald Reynolds, Robert Schumacher, Ed Churchwell, Kunal Ghosh, Andrey Korytov, Robert de Zafra, Daniel Chung, Ling-Fong Li, Eric Adelberger, James Linnemann, Joey Huston, Paul Lyman, Savdeep Sethi, Filomena Nunes, Derek Boyd, Richard Miller, Carla Riedel, Gaurang Yodh, Pawel Danielewicz, Charles Buchanan, James Burns, Paul Boynton, Riley Newman, Tammy Smecker-Hane, Michael Nauenberg, Mendel Sachs, Elizabeth Behrman, Steven Gross, David Buote, Thorsten Ritz, Christoph Paus, Brian Thomas, Peter Pella, Raymond Wilson, Roy Briere, Karen Kolehmainen, Arnold Dahm, William Fickinger, Stuart Shapiro, Jeffrey Rabin, Alfred Shapere, Moshe Elitzur, Rostislav Konoplich, Marcus McEllistrem, Philip Coulter, David Wieliczka, Elizabeth Stoddard, Rubby Sherr, David Kaiser, Jerzy Wrobel, John Clem, Philippe Binder, Victor Yakovenko, Gregory Moore, Kavan Ratnatunga, Herbert Berk, Stephanie Tristram-Nagle, Herman Verlinde, Sheldon Katz, Raymond Brock, Carlo Piermarocchi, Paul Langacker, Timothy McKay, Patricia Burchat, Daniel Kabat, Melvin Oakes, David Reis, Alex Dragt, Roberto Car, MIchael Douglas, Jacqueline van Gorkom, Yoonseok Lee, Arthur Rosenfeld, Bao-An Li, John Nagle, Chandra Patel, Raffi Budakian, Gary Horowitz, Duane Johnson, Laurence Yaffe, Richard Griffiths, Stewart Prager, Gerald Dugan, Megan Donahue, Harris Kagan, Mark McDermott, Rajarshi Roy, Nina Byers, Braenda P. Winnewisser, Peter Parker, Joseph Fowler, Frank Sciulli, Richard Furnstahl, Charles Thorn, Andrew Sustich, Anders Ryd, Allan MacDonald, Terence Watts, Stephen Hill, Oscar Greenberg, Ira Wasserman, Carl Gwinn, David M. Smith, Albion Lawrence, Wilmer Anderson, Wu-Ki Tung, Bruce Rosenblum, Michael Dine, Michael Zeller, Thomas Cohen, Jon Lawrence, Paul Renteln, Thomas Ferbel, Cecile DeWitt-Morette, Qimiao Si, Douglas Natelson, Tony Liss, Georg Bollen, Tim Halpin-Healy, Myron Salamon, Allan Kaufman, Howard Haber, Aron Bernstein, Siegbert Hagmann, Joseph Brill, Michael Wiescher, Alexei A. Maradudin, Peter Timbie, Arlin Crotts, Don Reeder, John P Holdren, Walter Lewin, Ilya Gruzberg, Harvey Gould, Peter Armitage, Laszlo Mihaly, Michael Bacon, Louis Bloomfield, Edwin L Carstensen, David Blackstock, J. David Gavenda, Wesley Nyborg, James Thompson, Walter Mayer, Ravi Rau, Felix Rodriguez-Trelles, Thomas Hockey, Daniel Zwanziger, Roger P. Kohin, Dennis Marks, Roy Andersen, Matthew Enjalran, Robert Hickok, Yurii Maravin, David W. Hogg, Neil Frazer, Julius Kuti, Costas Soukoulis

Please see Petition by Physicists on nuclear weapons policy for full text of statement and complete list of signatories and to add your name.