Like many of his generation who helped to form the field of conflict and peace studies, Frank Barnaby was originally trained as a nuclear physicist and spent his early years working at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England. Becoming disillusioned with his work in that part of the British defence establishment, he moved on to University College, London, where he taught as a university lecturer and inter-acted fruitfully with John Burton’s group at the Centre for the Analysis of Conflict. During this period (1957-67) he was also on the senior scientific staff of the Medical Research Council and began to write the series of books for which he subsequently became famous.
In 1969 he moved to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which was being established by the Swedish Government and starting to chart it course towards becoming the world’s leading think tank on global armaments and nuclear issues. Two years later Dr Barnaby became the second Director of SIPRI, a post he held for ten crucial years during which the Institute was establishing itself and gaining a world wide reputation for expertise and reliable research. It was during this period that SIPRI began regularly publishing its annual World Armaments and Disarmament Yearbook, which became essential reading for anyone interested in the whole field of arms control and disarmament.
In 1981 Dr Barnaby moved on to the Free University in Amsterdam and four years later he took up the Harold Stassen Chair of International Relations at the University of Minnesota as a visiting professor. He was also the Executive Secretary of the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995
Throughout all this time he continued to publish prolifically about nuclear weaponry and about the possible peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Many of his books were aimed at explaining complicated scientific issues in clear terms for the non-scientific reader but they were also intended to challenge conventional wisdom about military technology in general and about the use and threat of force in a world that was becoming increasingly dominated by proliferating nuclear weapons. Among his most popular works were his critical assessment of President Ronald Reagan’s dream of Star Wars [Fourth Estate 1987] and the somewhat sinisterly entitled How to Build a Nuclear Bomb published in 2003 and a year later expanded into How to Make a Nuclear Weapon and other Weapons of Mass Destruction [Granta; 2004].
Currently, Frank Barnaby is a freelance defence analyst living in England and has for any years been the Nuclear Issues Consultant to the Oxford Research Group. He continues to make thoughtful contributions to many of the current debates about weaponry, arms control and the spread of nuclear weapons and most recently has spoken, published about and given evidence on topics such as the Iranian nuclear programme, contemporary terrorism and global sustainability.
JB/CRM
