Below is a summary version of an open letter presented to the Czech ambassador to the UN Martin Palouš on November 16, 2007, organized by the New York–based Campaign for Peace and Democracy.


'Against US Military Bases in the Czech Republic'

We declare our solidarity with the November 17, 2007, demonstrations by the "No Bases Initiative" in the Czech Republic against the Czech government's plans to host the radar for a US anti-missile system.

Czech demonstrators chose November 17 because, they say, this date "has come to symbolize the overthrow of the undemocratic regime in the former Czechoslovakia and the return of representative democracy." They believe resistance to new foreign military bases is the most fitting commemoration of that anniversary.

Polls have shown that a significant majority of Czechs oppose the anti-missile system. Nor will it enhance security. As Czech activists say, the system "will lead to new dangers and insecurities. Although it is described as 'defensive,' in reality it will allow the United States to attack other countries without fear of retaliation. It will also put 'host' countries on the front line in future US wars."

Russian officials have already warned that if the United States proceeds with the system Russia will suspend participation in a treaty limiting conventional forces in Europe and direct its missiles toward Europe. This is an unjustified reaction, endangering innocent populations, but it is part of the crazy logic of superpower confrontation that the US anti-missile system will exacerbate.

The US government claims that the planned radar installation in the Czech Republic is designed to respond to an Iranian missile threat. But there is no credible evidence that such a threat exists today. And far from protecting against such a threat in the future, the anti-missile system and other nuclear escalations will only create even stronger inducements for Iran to seek nuclear weapons.

The United States can best reduce the danger of nuclear warfare by taking major steps toward disarmament. This would powerfully discourage other countries from developing their own nuclear weapons. We are inspired by Czechs who resist steps toward a new cold war. We join them in seeking to build an international movement for peace, democracy, and social justice.

Joanne Landy, Thomas Harrison, Stephen R. Shalom, Jesse Lemisch statement initiators

Stanley Aronowitz, Noam Chomsky, Joshua Cohen, Ariel Dorfman, Daniel Ellsberg, Richard Falk, Akbar Ganji, Doug Ireland, Chalmers Johnson, Naomi Klein, John Leonard, Katha Pollitt, Gloria Steinem, Meredith Tax, Immanuel Wallerstein, Cornel West, Howard Zinn and more than six hundred others

The full text and list of signers » 


Source (American): The New York Review of Books, Volume 55, Number 2 · February 14, 2008


The list of signers includes among other personalities dozens of professors from the United States, Canada, Great Britain or Japan. These are academics in "social sciences" (history, political science, sociology, economics) as well as in "natural sciences" (physics, medicine, architecture) and reprezentants of various university's workplaces, including the most prestigious ones (Yale, Princeton, Stanford University, John Hopkins University etc.). 

Ervand Abrahamian, Professor

Electa Arenal, Professor (emerita), New York

Stanley Aronowitz, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center

Rosalyn Baxandall, Distinguished Teaching Professor, SUNY Old Westbury

Mel Bienenfeld, Professor

Eileen Boris, Hull Professor of Women's Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Stephen Eric Bronner, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University

Morton K. Brussel, Professor emeritus of Physics

Patricia Chilton, Professor, Lancaster, UK

Noam Chomsky, Professor, Massachussets Institute of Technology

Zeljko Cipris, Professor, University of the Pacific

Joshua Cohen, Stanford University, Boston Review

Sheila Collins, Professor, William Paterson University

Arif Dirlik, Professor, Eugene, OR

Manuela Dobos, Associate Professor of History, retired, New York City, N.Y.

Martin Duberman, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, CUNY

Thomas Dublin, Professor, State University of New York at Binghamton

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Professor Emeritus

Robert Eliasr, Professor, University of San Francisco

Norman Epstein, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, University of B.C., Vancouver, Canada

Chris Evans, Professor, Nottingham, UK

Gertrude Ezorsky, Professor emerita CUNY, NEW POLITICS

Richard Falk, Milbank Professor, International Law, Princeton University (emeritus)

Cathey Falvo, M.D., President, Physicians for Social Responsibility/NYC

Samuel Farber, Professor Emeritus, Political Science Brooklyn College of CUNY

Mansour Farhang, Professor, Bennington College

Alan Feigenberg, Professor of Architecture, The City College of New York

Gordon N. Fleming, Professor Emeritus of Physics

Nancy Fraser, Professor of Philosophy and Politics, New School for Social Research

Nanette Funk, Professor, New York

Jill Godmilow, Professor, University of Notre Dame

Marthe R. Gold, Professor of Community Health, CUNY Medical School

Linda Gordon, Florence Kelley Professor of History, NYU

Jean Grossholtz, Professor Emeritus, Mount Holyoke College

A. Tom Grunfeld, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, Empire State College/SUNY

Robin E. Hahnel, Professor, American University

Richard Halpern, Professor of English, John Hopkins University

Joan Hoff, Professor

Alan F. Hofmann, Professor Emeritus of Medicine

Nancy Holmstrom, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers U – Newark

Edel Janik, Professor (retired)

Chalmers Johnson, Emeritus Professor

Temma Kaplan, Professor of History, Rutgers University

Sigmund Karterud, Professor

Assaf Kfoury, Professor, Boston University

Gary Kinsman, University Professor, Sociology Department, Laurentian University

J. Morgan Kousser, Professor of History and Social Science, Caltech

Kelly Kraemer, Associate Professor, College of St. Benedict/St. John's University

Scott Laderman, Assistant Professor of History, University of Minnesota, Duluth

Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Lauren Langman, Professor, Loyola University

Jane L. Lehr, Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies, California Polytechnic State University

Jesse Lemisch, Professor Emeritus of History, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

Robert E. Lerner, Professor

Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History, UC Santa Barbara

Robert J. Lipkin, Law Professor

Abby Lippman, Professor, Montreal, Quebec

Catherine Lutz, Professor, Providence, RI, USA

Gavin MacFadyen, Professor, City University, London, UK

John MacKay, Professor, Yale

Ravi Malhotra, Law Professor, Sponsor, New Politics

Farhad Mansouri, Professor, Washington D.C. University

Peter Marcuse, Professor, Columbia University

Peter L. McLaren, UCLA

Ian McMahan, Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Mark Crispin Miller, Professor, New York University

Timothy Mitchell, Professor, NYU

Val M. Moghadam, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, Purdue University

Ted Morgan, Professor, Political Science – Lehigh University

Tracy Mott, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Denver

Rom n Mungu a Huato, University Professor

Michael Munk, retired Professor, Portland

Martin Oppenheimer, emeritus Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University

David Ost, Professor, Hobart & Wm. Smith Colleges

Subra Pendyala, Professor of Physics, Fredonia

Stephan Peter, Professor of Political Science, ARCC

Yakov M. Rabkin, Professor, University of Montreal

Peter Rachleff, Professor of History, Macalester College

Rush Rehm, Professor, Stanford University

Fred M. Reinman, retired Professor

Ira Mikless Robinson, Retired Emeritus Professor, Urban Planning, Victoria, BC

Leonard S. Rodberg, Professor and Chair of Urban Studies, Queens College/CUNY

Gordon Rogoff, Professor, Yale University

Richard Roman, Professor (retired), Toronto, Canada

James Roth, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Regis University

John Sanbonmatsu, Assistant Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Mark Schafer, translater/artist/professor, Boston, MA USA

Carl E. Schorske, Emeritus Professor of History, Princeton University

Evalyn F. Segal, Professor Emerita, Philadelphia

Maynard Seider, Professor of Sociology, Mass. College of Liberal Arts

Robert Shaffer, Associate Professor of History, Shippensburg University

Billy G. Smith, Professor, Bozeman, Montana

Stephen Steinberg, Professor, Queens College, CUNY

Gerry Sussman, Professor, Portland State University

Patrick Suzeau, Professor

Terao Terumi, Professor Emeritus at Nagoya Inst. Of Technology, Ooze, Japan

David Vine, Assistant Professor, American University

Immanuel Wallerstein, Senior Research Scholar, Yale University

Jacqueline H. Wasilewski, Professor, Tokyo

Charles Webel, Professor

Lois Weiner, Professor, New Jersey City University

Naomi Weisstein, Professor Emerita of Psychology/Neuroscience, State University of New York at Buffalo

Judith Wittner, Professor of Sociology, Loyola University