European Scientists Against Rearmament: A Manifesto

By Carlo Rovelli, Flavio Del Santo, and the undersigned scientists, March 13, 2025

As scientists – many of us involved in fields on which military technology is developed –  as intellectuals, as citizens aware of the current global risks, we believe that today it is the moral and civic obligation of any person of good will to raise their voice against the call for a European militarization, and urge dialogue, tolerance, and diplomacy.  Abrupt militarization does not preserve peace; it leads to war.

Our political leaders say they are ready to fight to defend alleged Western values they deem at stake; are they ready to defend the universal value of human life? Conflicts around the world are on the rise. According to the United Nations (2023), one-quarter of humanity lives in areas affected by armed conflict.  The war between Russia and Ukraine, subsidized by NATO countries with the justification of ‘defending principles’, is leaving behind an estimated one million casualties. The risk of genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli army backed by the global West has been recognized by the International Court of Justice.  Brutal wars are unfolding in Africa, such as in Sudan, or in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fueled by interests in Africa’s mineral resources. The “Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists”, which quantifies the risks of a nuclear global catastrophe, never recorded a risk as high as today.

Scared by the Russian attack on Ukraine and by the recent repositioning of the United States, Europe feels sidelined and fears that its peace and prosperity could be at risks. Politicians are reacting in a short-sighted manner with a call to mobilize, on a continental scale, a colossal amount of resources to produce more tools of death and destruction.  On March 4, 2025, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, released the “ReArm Europe Plan”, stating that “Europe is ready and able to act with the speed and ambition that is needed. […] We are in an era of rearmament. And Europe is ready to massively boost its defense spending.”  The military industry, which has vast resources and powerful influence on politicians and the media, blows on the fire of an openly belligerent narrative. The “fear of Russia” is stirred up as a bogeyman, conveniently ignoring that Russia has a GDP lower than Italy alone. Politicians say, completely unwarrantedly, that Russia has expansionist aims towards Europe, posing a threat to Berlin, Paris and Warsaw, when it has just shown of not been even capable of taking its former satellite, Kiev. War propaganda is always nourished by instigating exaggerated fear. With diplomacy, Europe can go back to its peaceful coexistence and collaboration with Russia that the cursed Ukrainian affair has disrupted.

The idea that peace depends on overpowering the other sides leads only to escalation, and escalation leads to war.  The Cold War did not become a ‘hot’ war and wise politicians from both sides were able to overcome their strong ideological divergences and their respective “questions of principle” and agree on a dramatic balanced reduction of their respective nuclear armaments. The START nuclear treaties between the USA and the Soviet Union led to the destruction of 80% of the nuclear arsenal on the planet.  Scientists and intellectuals on both sides played a recognized role in pushing politicians towards a rational de-escalation. In 1955, one of the most prominent philosophers of the 20th century, mathematician, and Nobel Prize winner for literature, Bertrand Russell and Nobel laureate for physics Albert Einstein signed an influential manifesto, and the Pugwash Conference, inspired by it, brough together scientists of both sides, lobbying for de-escalation.  When Russell, in 1959, was asked to leave a message for posterity, he replied: “In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way. But if we are to live together, and not die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance, which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.” We should hold on to this wise intellectual heritage.

Major conflicts have always been preceded by massive military investments. Since 2009, global military spending has reached unprecedented record levels each year, with 2024 expenditure hitting an all-time high of 2443 billion dollars. The “ReArm Europe Plan” commits Europe to invest 800 billion euros in military expenses.  Both the current President of the USA and the current President of Russia have recently stated they are ready to start talks for normalization of the relations and for balanced military reduction.  The President of China is repeatedly calling for de-escalation and moving from a confrontational mentality towards a collaborative ‘win-win’ mentality. This is the direction to go. And now Europe prepares for war, with new planned military expenditures unseen since World War II.  Is Europe now willing to rattle swords because it feels left out?

Humankind faces tremendous global challenges: climate change, famine in the global South, largest-ever economic inequality, increasing risks of pandemics, nuclear war.  The last thing we need today is the Old Continent to move from a beacon of stability and peace to becoming a new warlord.

Si vis pacem para pacem—if you want peace, construct peace, not war.

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People of good will, scientists or not, are welcome to sign this statement here.