The daily "Le Monde" of 3rd March 1966 featured
an appeal by 13 people of international repute, including
Alfred Kastler who has just died.
In their appeal they said : "Without
supranational law, States have to rely on force to defend
their interests. The consequence is war …"
They invited people to register as WORLD
CITIZENS.
So as to elect, on a transnational basis, an Assembly
with the task of setting up laws for a peaceful and
civilized world. That appeal has been answered by
thousands through the world since that date, and
continues to be.
At the time of his award of the Nobel Prize for
Physics, professor Alfred Kastler made the following
declaration to the World Citizens, and it is still as
relevant :
"Declaring oneself a WORLD CITIZEN today seems to
me a necessary gesture in a world whose structures are
obsolete.
I lived through the trauma of the Alsatian borders,
both between two nationalisms, and I understood the
absurdity of perpetuating quarrels that lead to war.$
As a citizen of my own country, I believe that it must
help the under-developed world try all the means of its
disposal, and work to create that climate of confidence
which can end the arms race begun by the
super-powers.
As a scientist, I am aware that the solution of the
problem facing the scientific community, throughout the
world depends on their purposeful coming together.
I believe the same applies in the sphere of technical
application and to economic questions.
At a time when the release of nuclear energy has given
men possibilities of destruction or creation so far
undreamed-of, when mankind's space adventure is just
beginning, then it seems to me that humanity must create
global institutions, so as to put an end to war and to
starvation resulting from selfishness and hate.
As a man I feel at-one will all men, and I believe
that they must come together to create that city of
mankind, with room for contrasts of race and of ideology,
which we all pray for".
Alfred Kastler
Nobel Prize for Physics, 1966
