Mia Clarke, a Notre Dame undergraduate student and co-leader of CPN's Student Disarmament Webinar series, worked a summer internship with the Arms Control Association (ACA). She authored a blog post for ACA focused on engaging students and youth on the renewed nuclear threat facing the world today.
Clarke wrote: "Engaging the next generation is among the most repeated calls within the nuclear policy community. The cultural and political contexts in which the arms control and disarmament movement exists have changed dramatically over the past decade, and our methods for connecting with the younger members of the public must keep pace to remain effective. Sadly, there’s no magic formula for navigating these changes perfectly. But selecting the appropriate medium, centering hope within messaging, and building on the intersection of nuclear weapons with many other concerns can all guide efforts to engage younger audiences."
Clarke also wrote a story recapping the internship for the Keough School of Global Affairs.
The other co-leader of the Student Disarmament Webinar series is Notre Dame undergrad Lillian Post. Post took a summer course in Rome with CPN coordinator Gerard Powers and was able to attend the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on AI and Nuclear War. Post wrote about what she learned from the course and from attending the Assembly, reflecting: "What struck me most was that there was no consensus on a single way to engage young people. Some participants emphasized the need to communicate the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war, while others argued that the better approach is to invite young people to the table, listen to what matters most to them, and empower them to motivate their own generation on their own terms. The debate reinforced something I had begun to recognize through my own work in nuclear disarmament: Young people are unlikely to engage with this issue simply because they are told they should. They need an entry point that makes the issue relevant to the questions they are already asking."