International, national, regional: Die organisation «Internationale Ärzte zur Verhütung des Atomkrieges» und der wandel im anti-atomaren protest in der ersten hälfte der 1980er jahre

Translated title of the contribution: International, national, regional - The organisation «International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War» and the change of anti-nuclear protest in the first half of the 1980s

Claudia Kemper*

*Corresponding author for this work
2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The article focuses on the peace movement of the 1980s and its possibilities and limits of international networking. As an example, it examines the organisation «International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War» (IPPNW) and investigates the question of how the common objective - nuclear disarmament - was discussed internationally, nationally and regionally and how it was put into practice. By exploring different levels of this international organisation, the article reveals the limits of international ideas, which narrowed the members' scope of action within their national framework due to the East-West conflict. At the beginning of the 1980s, physicians, who in general were rather reluctant to join an organisation, had the opportunity to successfully send out their international medical message. Subsequently, numerous national sections emerged from the initially American-Soviet initiative that championed the process of disarmament in their countries based on the idea of politics across the blocs. The piece shows that not despite, but because of changing political conditions and internal controversies the IPPNW differentiated and professionalised over patterns of its protest during the 1980s. This in consequence reveals insights on political change in the 1980s. By no means was this a development merely affecting the peace movement, which in the first half of the decade had already been mobilised. The process of change was predominantly advanced by the movement's inner debates and differentiations.

Translated title of the contributionInternational, national, regional - The organisation «International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War» and the change of anti-nuclear protest in the first half of the 1980s
Original languageGerman
JournalArchiv fur Sozialgeschichte
Volume52
Pages (from-to)555-579
Number of pages25
ISSN0066-6505
Publication statusPublished - 2012

Research Areas and Centers

  • Academic Focus: Center for Infection and Inflammation Research (ZIEL)

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