The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs take their name from the location of the first meeting, which was held in 1957 in the village of Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, birthplace of the American philanthropist Cyrus Eaton, who hosted the meeting. The stimulus for that gathering was a Manifesto issued in 1955 by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein — and signed also by Max Born, Percy Bridgman, Leopold Infeld, Frederic Joliot-Curie, Herman Muller, Linus Pauling, Cecil Powell, Joseph Rotblat, and Hideki Yukawa — which called upon scientists of all political persuasions to assemble to discuss the threat posed to civilization by the advent of thermonuclear weapons. The 1957 meeting was attended by 22 eminent scientists (seven from the United States, three each from the Soviet Union and Japan, two each from the United Kingdom and Canada, and one each from Australia, Austria, China, France, and Poland).
Since then, Pugwash Conferences have been held annually, attended by 150 to 250 people , at locations all over the world, and there have been more frequent topical Workshops and Symposia typically involving 30 to 50 participants. A rather decentralized organizational structure has been created to coordinate and finance this activity. A basic rule is that participation is always by individuals in their private capacity (not as representatives of governments or organizations).
The purpose of the Pugwash Conferences is to bring together, from around the world, influential scholars and public figures concerned with reducing the danger of armed conflict and seeking cooperative solutions for global problems. Meeting in private as individuals, rather than as representatives of governments or institutions, Pugwash participants exchange views and explore alternative approaches to arms control and tension reduction with a combination of candour, continuity, and flexibility seldom attained in official East-West and North-South discussions and negotiations.
In order to ensure continuity of activity between the major events described above, many of the nations from which Pugwash participants are drawn have chosen to establish national groups, which meet more frequently, and engage in research and public relations activities in areas related to the purposes of International Pugwash. The British Pugwash Group is one such group, and has for many years been working on problems relating to non-proliferation and disarmament, covering both nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. In recent years, it has engaged in projects relating to the UK plutonium stockpile, the future of the UK Trident deterrent, and problems in the verification of nuclear weapon dismantlement.