J. Narayana Rao

Unfortunately we lost Rao a great comrade and campaigner to covid in 2021.
Our tributes and remembrance of him can be found here: Remembering Rao.

Our Directors

Robert Anderson (New Mexico) is a retired college teacher of economics and political science. He served in the U.S. Air Force and saw combat during the 1967-68 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Later, he helped form the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He traveled to Wounded Knee, S.D. in 1973 to support the indigenous struggles for sovereignty. In 2006 he was arrested and banned from the University of New Mexico for pointing out it was wrong for the university to be supporting the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) without public comment. He is co-director of Stop the War Machine which has organized major demonstrations opposing Star Wars and the wars of empire. Bob and his wife Jeanne Pahls helped the GN organize annual protests at the space industry’s nuclear power symposium in Albuquerque for several years. Bob is currently focusing on the role of the labs and various war bases in New Mexico in the newly created ‘Space Force’. – citizen@comcast.net

Denis Apel (California) lives in Santa Maria, California, United States of America. His home is very near Vandenberg Air Force Base and for 15 years he has been active resisting the mission of the Base which includes launching Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles whose warheads land in a lagoon at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. He has been arrested over 15 times for his actions there, and has spent time in prison.  In addition, he works in an area of California which is agricultural and relies on immigrants from Mexico for the labor. He and his colleagues are involved in helping those immigrants who are oppressed and marginalized.  He is challenged and heartened by what he has seen and read of people on Jeju Island and want to come to support them in any way he can.  He will be visiting the Marshall Islands on his way there and will be happy to give a report on their struggle – jdapel@yahoo.com

Bruce Gagnon (Maine) serves as Secretary/Coordinator of the GN. He has been working on space issues for over 40 years and helped create the GN in 1992. His book, called “Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire”, was republished in 2008. For 15 years he coordinated the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice. He was trained as an organizer by the United Farmworkers Union (full bio here)- globalnet@mindspring.com

Will Griffin (Pennsylvania) is an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran. Since his military experience, he has joined several peace organizations. He currently produces educational videos for the Global Network. – willyg1@pm.me

Aruna Kammila (India) did her PhD from Andhra University on “Cyber Wafare vis-a-vis International Humanitarian Law”,  specialized in Public International law and International Criminal Law at Master’s level from the University of Greenwich, London, UK and Cyber Laws and Intellectual Property Rights in PG Diploma Level from University of Hyderabad. She has been teaching Maritime Law, Air & Space Law, Public International Law and Cyber Laws. She has published several articles, participated in seminars and workshops and chaired sessions in India and abroad. She has rendered services as an academician at School of Law, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh and at managerial level for more than 10 years in India and London and was a practicing advocate – aruna1415@gmail.com

Tamara Lorincz (Canada) is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has a Masters in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford and a Law degree and MBA specializing in environmental law and management from Dalhousie University. Her research is on the climate and environmental impacts of the military. She’s a member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Tamara is also on the board of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, World Beyond War, and the No to NATO Network – tlorincz@dal.ca

Koohan Paik (Hawaii) was born to a Korean immigrant father and a Quaker-Jewish mother in Los Angeles. The family moved to Korea when she was a young child, in the 1960s, under the U.S. puppet-dictator regime of Park Chung-hee. During the 1970s, they moved to the U.S. territory of Guam, in the Mariana archipelago, so that her father could practice law on American soil. Guam filled her coming of age with both the sacred (kaleidoscopic coral reefs and cathedral-esque limestone jungles) as well as the profane (the sound of B-52s taking off almost every night to bomb Vietnam and Cambodia). These experiences imprinted a profound urge to protect the precious places and people of the Asia-Pacific. Today Koohan is based in Hawaii, home of INDOPACOM headquarters at Pearl Harbor, where necropolitical decisions are made of great consequence to our precious Pacific and beyond. Her work focuses on building solidarity between the communities on the ground who have been violated by these decisions — such as the Gangjeong villagers’ opposition movement to the monstrous navy base on Jeju island; the islanders on four Ryuku islands who have been protesting deployment of missiles aimed at China; the Mariana islanders who have been told by the Navy to expect at least 81,000 maimed or dead marine mammals per year in surrounding waters due to military drills; and many others.    From 2011 to 2016, Koohan was Coordinator of the Asia-Pacific program at the International Forum on Globalization, an NGO founded by her husband Jerry Mander. There, she was a key coordinator of the 2011 and 2013 Moana Nui public teach-ins, which brought together artists, scholars, activists, cultural practitioners, policy analysts, shamans, elected officials, attorneys and others to speak to urgent issues threatening the Asia-Pacific region. In the early 2000s, Koohan was a founding member of the Kauai Alliance for Peace and Social Justice, which organized numerous events on Kauai’s role in U.S. imperialism. She has also written extensively about the social and environmental impacts of militarism in the Asia-Pacific – koohanpaik@gmail.com

Lindis Percy (England) was born in Yorkshire, UK and worked for 36 years in the National Health Service as a nurse, midwife and health visitor. For ten years she lived 30 minutes away from Greenham Common where U.S. Cruise Missiles were deployed. She became aware of the dangers of nuclear weapons and joined in the women¹s campaign. As Co-Coordinator of Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) she has focused on NSA Menwith Hill (Yorkshire) and US bases in general for many years. CAAB has worked since 1996 on the role of Menwith Hill and Fylingdales in the American Missile Defense System. In 2004 Lindis was presented with the GN¹s Peace in Space Award – mail@caabcorner.org.uk

Lisa Savage (Maine) is an antiwar activist, organizer, blogger, and retired teacher from Maine, USA. In 2020, she ran for the U.S. Senate and earned 5% of votes following a strong performance in four televised debates where she shared an anti-imperialist analysis of U.S. foreign policy and domestic priorities. She founded the Maine Natural Guard where many have taken the pledge to point out the enormous role of the U.S military in driving climate crisis. She was co-coordinator of the national Bring Our War $$ Home campaign pointing out the bad budget priorities of the U.S. Congress. Her articles and op-eds on militarism have been published in Common Dreams and Counterpunch. In 2022 she became a social media coordinator for the GN on Twitter and Instagram. She blogs at Went2theBridge.org. – lsavage3@proton.me

Alice Slater (New York) serves on the Board of World BEYOND War and is a UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. She is on the Board of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, the Global Council of Abolition 2000, and the Advisory Board of Nuclear Ban-US, supporting the mission of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in realizing the successful UN negotiations for a Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. She began her long quest for peace on earth as a suburban housewife, when she organized Eugene McCarthy’s presidential challenge to Johnson’s illegal war in Vietnam in her local community.   As a member of the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control she travelled to Russia and China on numerous delegations engaged in ending the arms race and banning the bomb.  She is a member of the NYC Bar Association and served on the People’s Climate Committee-NYC,  working for 100% Green Energy by 2030 .  She has written numerous articles and op-eds, with frequent appearances on local and national media. – aslater@rcn.com

Professor Em. Dave Webb (Leeds, UK) is the Convener of the GN board of directors. He is a retired university engineering professor who switched to Peace and Conflict Studies. He was also co-founder of the Praxis Centre (for the study of Information and Technology for Peace, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights) at Leeds Beckett University. He retired from there in 2012 to focus on peace campaigning. He is also the webmaster of the GN’s website and at the 2001 GN international membership conference in Leeds, England, Dave was presented with the “Web Master of Space Award”. He was also chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the UK for about 10 years and is now on CND Council. He was also a Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau. He is now chair of the Yorkshire Region CND, a member of Spacewatch UK, on the steering group of Dronewars and the coordinating group og Abolition 2000, and a patron of the UK group Scientists for Global Responsibility – dave@space4peace.org

Advisers

Bill Astore (Massachusetts) is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and professor of history. He has written for TomDispatch.com, Truthout, History News Network (HNN), Alternet, Salon, Antiwar.com, and Huffington Post among other sites. Bill as authored or co-authored three books and numerous articles focusing on military history as well as the history of science, technology, and religion. He earned a BS (with distinction) in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an MA from the Johns Hopkins University (history of science and technology), and a D.Phil. (doctor of philosophy) from the University of Oxford (modern history). Bill’s web site is called Bracing Views where he writes about U.S. militarism and politics. bracingviews.subtrack.com – wjastore@gmail.com

Prof. (Dr.) Sandeepa Bhat (India) is Professor of Law and Director of Centre for Aviation and Space Laws at National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. He has the experience of researching on five Major Research Projects sponsored by World Bank, ISRO, the WB Judicial Academy, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. He has the distinction of being the member of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), Baltimore, United States of America, International Academy of Space Law (IASL), Moscow, Russia, and the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), Paris, France. Dr. Bhat has published three books on Space Law and three books on Medical Law. In addition, he has published more than fifty articles in the journals of international and national repute. He has presented over hundred and ten research papers in the international and national conferences including the coveted International Astronautical Congress, as well as in international conferences held at Jakarta, Seoul, Sharjah, Singapore, Changsha, Paris, Austin and Southampton. He also has the distinction of being a member of Indian Space Research Organization’s Expert Advisory Group for drafting the National Space Act for India. – sandeep@nujs.edu

Dr. Helen Caldicott (Australia) has worked for 26 years to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age. In 1980, she resigned as instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School to work full time on the prevention of nuclear war. She co-founded the Physicians for Social Responsibility and recently founded the Nuclear Policy Research Institute to create a public education campaign about the dangers of nuclear policies. Helen¹s latest book is called The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush¹s Military-Industrial Complex – HCaldic@bigpond.com

Sung-Hee Choi (South Korea) is peace activist and one of the key organizers within the Jeju naval base resistance. She works tirelessly to demilitarize Jeju. She translated two Global Network videos, ‘Arsenal of Hypocrisy’ and ‘A Space 4 Peace,’ into Korean. Sung-Hee was a member of the Korean organizing committee that hosted the GN’s 17th annual space organizing conference in Seoul, Korea in April 2009. Sung-Hee was a recipient of the GN’s Peace in Space award in 2009 – armha2013@gmail.com

Chris Cole (UK) is the founder of Drone UK and the author of a number of reports and articles on the use of armed drones. He has submitted evidence to various Parliamentary Committees including the Defence Select Committee, the Joint Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Arms Export Controls and is regularly invited to speak to conferences, public meetings and the media on drones, targeted killing and remote warfare. He is a trustee of the Trust for Research and Education on Arms Trade (TREAT) and former Vice-Chair of the international Catholic organisation, Pax Christi. – chrish@dronewars.net

Professor Atsushi Fujioka (Japan) is a professor of Economics at the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. He spoke on behalf of the GN at a recent World Social Forum. Atsushi also works to promote peace museums throughout the world. He has organized a Japanese speaking tour for Bruce Gagnon in the past – fujioka@ec.ritsumei.ac.jp

Subrata Ghoshroy (Massachusetts) is a Research Affiliate in MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society. Subrata is the co-Chair of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Social Responsibility (INES). He spent many years as an engineer before joining the academia. He was also a professional staff member of the US Congress and later a Senior Defense Analyst at GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, where he became its first whistle-blower. His research includes military funding of research, nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and global peace and security. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences. He writes frequently for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is the co-author of the book South Asia at a Crossroads, Nomos, 2010. ghoshroy@mit.edu

Karl Grossman (New York) is a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College of Old Westbury on Long Island, N.Y.  Karl is a co-founder of the GN and regularly writes about plans to launch nuclear power into space. His most recent book is entitled Weapons in Space and he has produced several space videos – kgrossman@hamptons.com

Ilderkin Leonid (Russia) was active in different public organizations in Ukraine since 1989. There he was responsible for different duties such as social engineering, designing of the organizational structure, description of procedures and regulations, fundraising, management and monitoring of social projects, organization and conducting of trainings, seminars and conferences, working with the media, developing and implementing PR plans of the organizations (public relations). Leonid participated also in different volunteer programs, social programs, etc. Since 2010 he was assistant to a district Council member in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine). He also was head of Department of the headquarters of the election campaign on elections to the Verkhovna Rada (the Parliament) of Ukraine in Dnepropetrovsk. After the start of civil conflict in Ukraine, he was forced to leave the country. Now he is a member of the Coordination Council of the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine.  Leonid lives outside of Moscow, Russia and speaks 10 languages – mitya.dezhnev@mail.ru

Dr. Michio Kaku (New York) holds the Henry Semat Professorship in Theoretical Physics  at the Graduate Center of the CUNY. He has written many books including “Hyperspace,” “Visions” and “Physics of the Impossible.” Michio hosts a live science radio talk show on 90 commercial radio stations called “Science Fantastic” – see more at www.mkaku.org – mkaku@aol.com

Kate Kheel (U.S.) is a musician and long time advocate for safer internet and telecommunications technology. She is a founding member of Safe Tech International a coalition calling for more balanced integration of technology into our world, and a greater reliance on wired (vs. wireless) technology. When she learned of the association between technology and the military, she began raising awareness about how technology on Earth, in the skies, and throughout the oceans, is not only a threat to health, privacy, security and to the environment, but additionally is being used to increase the lethality of war and to pivot the world to AI controlled warfare. Through her advocacy and music, Kate works toward envisioning a new civilization — one where Mother Earth and all her children can live together in peace – kkheel@verizon.net

Agneta Norberg (Sweden) is vice chair of the Swedish Peace Council, a member of the steering Committee of the International Peace Bureau where issues related to NATO, nuclear issues and space are her most important tasks. For the moment trying to raise awareness of the dangers of letting US/NATO into Sweden. Doing a lot of travelling and talking, sometimes interrupted by singing. Highlights the installations serving US space plans the Nordic area. Playing with grandchildren as much as possible, playing the accordion to relax.  People who have been important for my understanding of the world: Jackie Cabasso, Joseph Gerson, Bruce Gagnon and Phyllis Bennis – lappland.norberg@gmail.com

Yasuo Ogata (Japan) is Co-chair of the “World Conference Against A & H Bombs” and a member of the “Board of Directors of the Japan Council Against A & H Bombs” (Gensuikyo). He has participated in GN conferences from 2016 (at Vissakhapatnaam, Huntsville and Oxford). Yasuo has also served as a member of the Japanese House of Councillors (1995 – 2007), having been elected by the Tokyo constituency), and was the Paris correspondent for Akahata from 1979 to 1984 – ogata.y@me.com

Christian Sorensen (US) is a researcher and independent journalist mainly focused on the corporations profiting from war. An Air Force veteran, he is the author of the book Understanding the War Industry. His work is posted at warindustrymuster.com

Koji Sugihara (Japan) was born in 1965 and lives in Tokyo. He coordinates the No to Nukes & Missile Defense Campaign and frequently organizes protests at US military installations in Japan where these systems are based.  He continues to monitor, write, and speak out against the missile defense system and rapidly-emerging military-industrial complex in Japan – kojis@agate.plala.or.jp

Mary Beth Sullivan (Maine) first became involved with the space issues in 1997, when she helped organize, and was arrested, supporting the campaign against NASA’s Cassini probe launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying 72 pounds of plutonium.  She lives in Bath, Maine and frequently vigils in front of Bath Iron Works (BIW), a General Dynamics-owned shipyard that builds naval destroyers.  Mary Beth actively promotes a vision of conversion from a war economy to a peace economy, transforming the work that builds for permanent war to work that creates the alternative energy, transportation and societal   infrastructure needed to deal with the issues of climate change.  Mary Beth is a social worker in a progressive non-profit agency whose mission is to empower people experiencing problems with homelessness, housing, hunger and poverty, and to advocate for solutions to these problems – mbsull@gwi.net

Daniel Walsh (Newcastle, UK) is a PhD researcher in Human Geography at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK (2024-2027). From a critical perspective, he is conducting research into the effects that the development of commercial spaceports have on marginalised communities and ecosystems, and how marginalised communities respond, and in some cases, resist. He will be conducting fieldwork in the United States in 2025-2026. With a background in research, policy development, and community engagement, he is becoming active in wider academic and activist networks on themes of outer space, environmental justice, and political economy – daniel4.walsh@northumbria.ac.uk

Kay Weir (New Zealand) began working with the Pacific Institute of Resource Management (PIRM) in Wellington, New Zealand in 1994. PIRM is dedicated to ecology, sustainability, peace, and equity concerns. She began helping founder, George Porter with his publication, Pacific World. Later with support of British ecologist, Edward Goldsmith she became editor of Pacific Ecologist. Issue 22 is titled: WHY IT’S VITAL TO RID THE WORLD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS & WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. https://pacificecologist.org/archive/22/. As the 21st Century unravelled, the appalling, illegal US/UK/NATO wars, killing millions of people, destroying Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen, became a main focus. Mainstream western media barely covered the carnage of these wars, year after year. Then the US-aided violent coup in Ukraine in 2014, displaced a democratically elected government, and imposed an anti-Russia regime on Russia’s border. Russia’s much provoked intervention in Ukraine in February 2022 to protect the long-suffering ethnic Russians of the Donbass region from large-scale attacks by Kiev’s military forces in February, met with strident condemnation by US-led western countries. Western countries now arm Kiev with long-range weapons. Russia’s nuclear security concerns about NATO’s expansion expressed in December are increasing. New nuclear risks arise in ongoing US deployment of so-called B61-12 “mini-nukes,” replacing the previous B61 nuclear bombs, deployed by the US in Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey along with Aegis Ashore launch bases in Romania and Poland, close enough to strike Russia. Western media and our governments obliviously fan the conflict and nuclear dangers. Raising our voices to draw attention to the ever present potential for nuclear war to unravel in Europe because of America and NATO’s aggressive activities is now the most vital priority for security of the entire world www.pitm.org.nz. – pirmeditor@gmail.com

Wooksik Cheong (South Korea) is one of the founding members and the representative of Peace Network, a non-governmental organization formed in 1999, working for peace and disarmament in the Northeast Asia and on the Korean Peninsula. As a peace activist, an independent researcher, and a journalist, He has organized many campaigns and conferences, written books and essays, and made speeches both in Korea and abroad. Wooksik was one of the people responsible for hosting and organizing the Global Network’s very successful space organizing conference in Seoul in 2009 – wooksik@gmail.com

---