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During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Dr. John Endicott served as a nuclear targeting officer in the Strategic Air Command headquarters when it was sealed for the only time in history. Having looked into the nuclear abyss, he has a deep interest in nuclear peace.
Years later, Endicott a retired colonel who spent twenty-eight years in the U.S. Air Force and a professor at Georgia Tech since 1989 and his brainchild, the Limited Nuclear Weapons Free Zone for Northeast Asia (LNWFZ-NEA), were nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. Created in 1991, the project seeks to permanently remove nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Taiwan, and Mongolia, and remove tactical nuclear weapons from eastern Siberian Russia, northeast China, and the Aleutian Islands. The success of this project will serve as a model for creating nuclear-free zones elsewhere.
Explaining his initial motivation Endicott said, A series of events came together a perfect storm if you will the U.S. redeployment of all tactical nuclear weapons from Europe and Asia, the decision to allow intrusive North Korean inspections of U.S. bases in South Korea, and the North-South denuclearization treaties. I thought it was time for a nuclear free zone.
The initial meeting of the LNWFZ-NEA had only five delegates representing China, South Korea, Japan, Russia, and the United States. Today, the organization involves more than seventy diplomats, military officials, nuclear scientists, academics, and peace activists from ten countries.
The project has gained tacit approval from the governments involved and has made progress toward creating a climate of trust in Northeast Asia. Fully implemented, the regime would involve inspections of nuclear and military facilities, a permanent forum, cooperative security arrangements, and perhaps a decrease of hair-trigger offensive military forces along the demilitarized zone in Korea.
Endicott is also co-principal investigator for the Sam Nunn Security Program, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. The Nunn Security Program exposes young scientists and engineers to international security and policy issues. | 