Ward Wilson

Ward Hayes Wilson (born April 26, 1956) is an American researcher who is the executive director of RealistRevolt, a grassroots advocacy organization in the Chicago area. He lives and works in Glenview, Illinois.

Ward Hayes Wilson is a writer at “the forefront” of debates about the value and utility of nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence.^[1][2][3][4] He has been a senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, BASIC (the British American Security Information Council), and the Federation of American Scientists.^[5]

Wilson is best known for his argument that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not force Japan's surrender at the end of World War II.^[6] Winner of the $10,000 Doreen and Jim McElvany Nonproliferation Challenge in 2008,^[7] Wilson uses realist arguments to challenge existing ideas about nuclear weapons. His arguments have appeared in anti-nuclear journals he Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists^[8] and Nonproliferation Review,^[9] in military journals Joint Force Quarterly ^[10] and Parameters,^[11] in foreign policy journals Foreign Policy ^[12] and International Security,^[13] and in the New York Times,^[14] the Los Angeles Times,^[15] and The Nation.^[16]

Wilson received a grant in 2010 to write, travel, and speak on nuclear weapons issues.^[17] He presented arguments that challenge accepted ideas about nuclear weapons in 23 countries including at the Pentagon; the French National Assembly; the United Nations; the Scottish National Parliament; the U.S. State Department; Harvard; Stanford; Princeton; Georgetown; Yale; the Sorbonne; the U.S. Naval War College; King's College London; Hamburg University; Nagasaki University; University of Pretoria; the Mexican Foreign Ministry; the Belgian Parliament; the National Assembly of Costa Rica; Aberystwyth University, Wales; and Chatham House, London^[18]

Wilson launched his book Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons at an event at the United Nations in February 2013.^[19] He launched his second book It Is Possible: A Future Without Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations in 2023.^[20]

• RFK Fellow, The Robert Kennedy Memorial Foundation, 1981.^[21]
• Doreen and Jim McElvaney Prize, which included a $10,000 award for the best essay on nuclear weapons worldwide in 2008.^[22]

• Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. Review.
• "Strengthening Nonproliferation", British American Security Information Council, October 2013
• "Rethinking the Utility of Nuclear Weapons,” Parameters, 2013.
• "Myth of Nuclear Necessity," op-ed, The New York Times, January 13, 2013.
• “The Myth of Nuclear Deterrence,” Nonproliferation Review, 2008.
• “The Winning Weapon? Rethinking Nuclear Weapons in Light of Hiroshima,” International Security, 2007.

• Doomsday Clock

• Ward Wilson, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Ward Wilson, author of “Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons” presents his book at the United Nations, UNODA
• Interview with Ward Wilson, author, “5 Myths of Nuclear Weapons”, July 22, 2019
• RealistRevolt, a project by Ward Wilson