Nominees for the 2020 Arms Control Person(s) of the Year


Since 2007, the independent, nongovernmental Arms Control Association has nominated individuals and institutions that have, in the previous 12 months, advanced effective arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament solutions and raised awareness of the threats posed by mass casualty weapons. A full list of previous winners is available here.

The 2020 nominees were:

Previous winners of the "Arms Control Person of the Year" include: Dr. Areg Danagoulian and colleagues at MIT who developed an innovative new nuclear disarmament verification process (2019); 4,000 Anonymous Google Employees whose open letter to company leadership led to Google ending its work on “Project Maven” with the Pentagon (2018); Diplomats from Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, and South Africa, and Costa Rica who secured the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2017); The government of Marshall Islands and its former Foreign Minister Tony de Brum (2016)Setsuko Thurlow and the Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, (2015); Austria's Director for Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Ambassador Alexander Kmentt (2014), Executive-Secretary of the CTBTO Lassina Zerbo (2013)Gen. James Cartwright (2012); reporter and activist Kathi Lynn Austin (2011), Kazakhstan's Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Umarov and Thomas D'Agostino, U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator (2010)Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) (2009), Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and his ministry's Director-General for Security Policy and the High North Steffen Kongstad (2008), and U.S.Congressmen Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and David Hobson (R-Ohio) (2007).

If you support the Arms Control Association's promotion of these principled individuals and efforts, please make a contribution that allows us to support their work throughout the year. Such efforts depend on the support of individuals like you.

Special Recognition

The pursuit of effective arms control comes in many forms. In this most unusual year of 2020, the Arms Control Association also wishes to note these important efforts:

  • The Mayors and the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, helped the world and the remaining Hibakusha observe the solemn 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of their cities and amplify appeals for action toward the prohibition and elimination all nuclear weapons.
  • The untold numbers of people working in the corridors, offices, and in the field in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic for national governments, the United Nations, and intergovernmental organizations, including the IAEA, CTBTO, and OPCW, in the service of peace and international security. Special appreciation also goes out to the work of the technical and support personnel involved in treaty verification and monitoring and demining under even more difficult conditions than usual.

* Rep. Paul Gosar, previously nominated, has disqualified himself from consideration for his tacit support of the Jan. 6. violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.