Science for Peace and the need for Civil Clauses at universities and civilian research institutions

J. Altmann, U. Amaldi, M. Barone, A. Bassalat, M. Bona, J. Beullens, H. Brand, S. Brentjes, D. Britzger, J. Ellis, S. Franchoo, A. Giammanco, A. Glazov, C. Heck, H. Jung, S. Kraml, L. Lönnblad, M. Mangano, M. Renneberg, Th. Riebe, A. Sabio-Vera, R. Sanders, J. Scheffran, M. Schmelling, T. Schucker, T. Suzuki, A. Tanasijczuk, I. Tsakov, D. Valls-Gabaud, M. Walker

After the end of World War II, the commitment to confine scientific activities in universities and research institutions to peaceful and civilian purposes has entered, in the form of {\it Civil Clauses}, the charters of many research institutions and universities. In the wake of recent world events, the relevance and scope of such Civil Clauses has been questioned in reports issued by some governments and by the EU Commission, a development that opens the door to a possible blurring of the distinction between peaceful and military research.
This paper documents the reflections stimulated by a panel discussion on this issue recently organized by the Science4Peace Forum. We review the adoptions of Civil Clauses in research organizations and institutions in various countries, present evidence of the challenges that are emerging to such Civil Clauses, and collect arguments in favour of maintaining the purely civilian and peaceful focus of public (non-military) research.

as Co-author, Christian Heck wrote about the need of civil clauses in art- and media academies:

„New media and technologies are increasingly shaping our everyday lives and warfare. Thus, their designers also bear an increasing social responsibility, which also poses new challenges for their educational institutions. The role of media, art and cultural workers has changed in recent years due to the rise of social media, which has created a breeding ground for polarization, disinformation and propaganda in the information and media war. The same media we use to connect, to inform and to communicate with each other are being used for military operations and to construct AI-supported cyber-weapons and targeting and decision sup- port systems [39]. As academies of art and media are places of creation and reflection, they teach and conduct research at the intersection of aesthetics, technology, and society. They play an active role in the debate on cultural participation, civil values, creative power and social responsibility in the digital age. Therefore, for an academy of art and media, anchoring a Civil Clause in its basic regulations, which explicitly prioritizes the peace-building and peace- preserving aspects of media in studies, teaching and research, i.e., promoting the social aspects within social media and rejecting any involvement of art, science and research that serves or is aimed at waging war, is a clear position to adopt [40]. Since 2024, the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) has been committed to exclusively peaceful and non-military goals through a Civil Clause. This is particularly important at a time when societal rearmament and preparation for war is increasingly being socialised through the media.“

Read full paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.22476