NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Democratic Committee is inviting area residents to a panel discussion on threat of nuclear war with North Korea on Wednesday night in the Northampton High School auditorium.
The town-hall style forum titled “The North Korea Nuclear Threat and U.S. Policy: Is War Avoidable? What Can We Do?” runs from 7-9 p.m. and will include 15-minute presentations from the panelists followed by a question-and-answer session.
“We are perhaps closer to war in Asia than at any time since the end of the Vietnam War, and this time we face a very real risk of nuclear weapons use,” said panelist Michael Klare, a Five Colleges professor of Peace and World Security Studies, in announcing the event. “We need to know the facts, and we need to figure out how we can avoid going to war.”
Klare will be joined on the panel by Thomas M. Countryman, chairman of the board of the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C., who was the Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation Affairs and acting Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, and Dennis Yasutomo, a professor of government at Smith College, who specializes in contemporary Japanese foreign policy. U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, is participating through video, and plans to describe current legislative efforts on Capitol Hill to avert war and how citizens can advance those efforts, according to organizers.
The event is sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Smith College Government Department, The Resistance Center for Peace and Justice, the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership, and Northampton Community TV.