Abstract
Peacebuilding used to power humanity’s quest for fusion; it still could. This article analyses the enormous implications of a burning plasma fusion breakthrough, for both worsening conflicts and peacebuilding, by applying the nonkilling global political science peacebuilding framework; the quintuple helix technology innovation ecosystem model; and recent path dependence theory. The first burning plasma will be an unprecedented historical event, with the closest parallel being the Trinity Test; we analyze the Test in path dependence terms to compare it with fusion. As with fission, fusion will be weaponized due to its intrinsic benefits. However, the innovations leading to fusion are not occurring unnoticed. Unlike Trinity, which was conducted in secret in wartime, fusion is being developed in peacetime, to assist a low-carbon transition. With fission, immediately following the Second World War, despite initial progress, the USSR rejected the US Baruch Plan to place atomic energy and weapons under the UN to stifle a nuclear arms race. The result was the Cold War. Similarly, we forecast a global critical juncture in which a new normative nuclear order can be created via a new Baruch Plan that could deliver a Universal Global Peace Treaty, with humanity re-prioritizing its goals for this century.
Author Bio(s)
Elias G. Carayannis
Elias G. Carayannis (ORCID: 0000-0003-2348-4311) is a full professor of Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, as well as the co-founder and co-director of the Global and Entrepreneurial Finance Research Institute (GEFRI) and the director of research on Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the European Union Research Center (EURC) at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB) in Washington, D.C. Dr. Carayannis’s teaching and research activities focus on the areas of strategic Government-University-Industry R&D partnerships, technology road-mapping, technology transfer and commercialization, international science and technology policy, technological entrepreneurship and regional economic development. Dr. Carayannis has dozens of publications in both academic and practitioner journals and published more than fifty books to date on science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship with Springer, CRC Press, Praeger/Greenwood, Palgrave/MacMillan and Edward Elgar, and with several more projects under contract. He has consulted for a wide variety of technology-driven organizations in both government and the private sector, including the World Bank, the European Commission, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the US Agency for International Development.
John Draper
John Draper (ORCID: 0000-0002-3626-533X) is a Research Associate with the Economics and Business Research Committee of the Center for Global Nonkilling, a Honolulu-based United Nations-accredited NGO working in the field of peacebuilding. He holds a BA in Modern History from Oxford University, an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Southern Queensland, and a Doctor of Public Administration from Khon Kaen University in Thailand. His research has addressed inequality by ethnicity, especially within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and his most recent research, published in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, the Journal of the Knowledge Economy, and Peace & Conflict, addresses Global North-South cooperation on nuclear fusion for peacebuilding. A science diplomat, he has also been a journalist.
Balwant Bhaneja
Balwant Bhaneja is a retired Canadian science diplomat and current Board Member of the Center for Global Nonkilling, a Honolulu-based United Nations-accredited NGO working in the field of peacebuilding. Educated in engineering, journalism, and international relations, Dr. Bhaneja is the author of several books, he has also authored or co-authored articles on science policy, politics, and peace building. His works include a collaboration with Indian playwright Vijay Tendulkar, entitled Two Plays: The Cyclist and His Fifth Woman (2006) published by Oxford University Press (India), and Quest for Gandhi: A Nonkilling Journey (2011) published by the Center of Global Nonkilling, Honolulu, Hawaii. Bhaneja’s short fiction has appeared in South Asian periodicals and his plays have been produced by the BBC World Service and Toronto’s Maya Theatre at Harbourfront. He lives in Ottawa.
Keywords
climate change, global nonkilling political science, nuclear fusion, peacebuilding, quintuple helix innovation ecosystem, railgun
Recommended Citation
Carayannis, Elias; Draper, John; and Bhaneja, Balwant
(2022)
"Fusion Energy for Peacebuilding: A Trinity Test-Level Critical Juncture,"
Peace and Conflict Studies: Vol. 29:
No.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/pcs/vol29/iss1/4
