The Disarmament and Security Centre (DSC) is a not-for-profit charitable organisation based in Aotearoa New Zealand. The DSC was established in 1998 in Christchurch. Today, we operate as primarily a virtual Centre connecting disarmament experts, lawyers, political scientists, academics, teachers, students and disarmament proponents. To read more about our work, please see our Annual Report here.
The DSC has donated an extensive archive of materials to the University of Canterbury MacMillan Brown library. You can access this collection online here.
The DSC provides a resource centre for alternative thinking on disarmament and security issues, both within Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally. Currently the work focuses on reinvigorating public awareness on disarmament issues by implementing the recommendations from the 2002 United Nations Study on Disarmament and Non Proliferation Education. Examples include educating about New Zealand’s nuclear free legislation, the World Court's 1996 Advisory Opinion on nuclear weapons and its implications, the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the fallacies of nuclear deterrence, and offering safer alternative security strategies. To read more about our work, please see our Annual Report here.
Lucy Stewart
Programme Manager
Lucy Stewart holds a Masters of Professional Studies degree in International Relations and Human Rights (MPSIRHR) from the University of Auckland. She spent three years teaching children and adults in the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq. She was on the New Zealand civil society delegation to the United Nations for the negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017. Lucy was awarded the Quaker Loxley Peace and Service Award in 2017 for her work with the DSC. Read more about Lucy’s work here.
Connect with Lucy on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Dr Marcus Coll
Research Fellow | Project Lead
Marcus Coll spent seven years studying and working in Japan and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Japanese (Bunkyō University Tokyo), a Master of Diplomacy, and a Doctorate in International Relations (Canterbury). His doctoral research involved interviewing and researching survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Indigenous rights activists, religious and military leaders, peace campaigners, and others who were instrumental in shaping New Zealand’s nuclear free identity. Read more about Marcus' research here. Currently he is documenting Ōtautahi Christchurch's peace history through the city council's Intangible Heritage Project.
Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn.
Patrick Kinney
Part-time Researcher | Project Support
Patrick Kinney is an undergraduate student at the University of Canterbury studying Law and Political Science. He is currently president of UCDisarm – the campus peace and disarmament club – and has previously worked closely with the DSC in that role. He first became involved with the DSC in his last year of high school while attending a Christchurch Heritage Festival Event run by the Centre.
Dr Kate Dewes ONZM
Former Director | Current Advisor
Kate Dewes co-directed the Christchurch Disarmament & Security Centre (DSC) with her husband Robert Green from 1998 to 2018. She was on the International Steering Committee for the World Court Project (1992-1996); a member of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (1987-1990, 2000-2007); part-time lecturer in Peace Studies at the University of Canterbury for 20 years; the NZ government expert on the UN Study on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education (2000-2002), and a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (2008-2013). In 2021, Kate was appointed to the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.
Commander Robert Green RN (Ret’d)
Former Director | Current Advisor
Robert Green served for twenty years in the British Royal Navy from 1962 to 1982. As a bombardier-navigator, he flew in Buccaneer nuclear strike aircraft and then anti-submarine helicopters equipped with nuclear depth-bombs. On promotion to Commander in 1978, he worked in the Ministry of Defence before his final appointment as Staff Officer (Intelligence) to the Commander-in-Chief Fleet during the 1982 Falklands War. Robert Green chaired the UK affiliate of the World Court Project (1991-2004) and he is the author of Security Without Nuclear Deterrence.
Pauline Tangiora
DSC Kuia
Pauline Tangiora (J.P, Q.S.O, Q.S.M) is a Māori elder of Ngāti Rongomaiwahine descent from the East Coast of Te Ika a Maui, the North Island of Aotearoa. She is a Justice of the Peace, a former President and current Vice-President of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Aotearoa, the former Regional Women's Representative for the World Council for Indigenous Peoples, and a former Earth Charter Commissioner. She is a life member of the Māori Women's Welfare League and a Patroness of the Peace Foundation. She has represented Aotearoa at many international fora and was a Consultant at the International Steering Committee of the World Court Project. In 2017 she was awarded the International Bremen Peace Award in Germany, and in 2018 she was the recipient of the Wisdom Fellowship Award in the US. Click here to read the 2003 oral history interview with Pauline by Kate Dewes.
