Founding of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War is a federation of national medical groups founded by the American cardiologist Bernard Lown and the Soviet cardiologist Yevgeny Chazov, together with other physicians, at the height of the Cold War. Its argument was that nuclear war would be a catastrophe for public health that medicine could not treat, and that prevention was therefore the only response. By bringing together doctors from East and West it built a bridge across the Cold War divide. It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. In 2007 it helped found the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its role in the treaty banning nuclear weapons.

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