The warnings issued by UN Secretary-General António Guterres have been consistent and direct. Humanity, he tells us is "just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation". The third SHAPE webinar featured Professor Richard A. Falk and Dr Zia Mian, discussing the nuclear threat and the career of Daniel Ellsberg.

Ellsberg was originally scheduled to speak at the webinar but had to withdraw due to serious illness. After some hesitation, SHAPE decided to go ahead with the webinar, recasting it partly as an occasion for homage to Ellsberg. Dr Zia Mian was featured speaker, doing a superb job of both presenting Ellsberg’s conceptual contributions to how to think about nuclear weapons, and the broader dangers as brought to a heightened awareness by the way both Russia and the U.S. responded to the Ukraine War.

Despite the time zone challenges of a worldwide SHAPE initiative, more than 850 registered, and some 500 participated with lots of praise for Ellsberg in the chat box and during the Q&A.