The Göttingen Peace Prize 2025 of the Dr. Roland Röhl Foundation has been awarded to the renowned theoretical physicist and Global Security Institute Advisory Board member Professor Frank von Hippel. With this award, the Foundation honors outstanding services to scientific peace research and its significant peace-oriented activities in the field of nuclear weapons control and disarmament, in particular in the non-redistribution of nuclear weapons. Professor von Hippel has been working with the Global Security Institute for more than 40 years.
The jury members of the foundation justified their choice with von Hippel’s numerous physics-based studies, cooperative initiatives and current statements, which have made a decisive contribution to the control and elimination of fissile material, to the safety of nuclear fuel circuit plants and to the verifiable disarmament of nuclear weapons. His decades-long leadership role in diverse practical efforts for nuclear arms control and disarmament, including his work in the U.S. administration of President Clinton, as well as his advisory activities for numerous non-governmental organizations, underline his tireless work for peace.
Most significantly, in early June of this year, von Hippel — along with co-authors Alexander Glaser, Zia Mian, and Seyed Hossein Mousavian — proposed a bold new framework for peace: a nuclear consortium in the Persian Gulf. Published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, their plan envisioned Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Oman jointly pursuing uranium enrichment under the strict oversight of the IAEA. This initiative offered a pragmatic, transactional approach grounded in economic cooperation rather than geopolitical rivalry. It could have aligned regional interests with U.S. diplomacy through commerce instead of coercion. As recent attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran unfold, the proposal stands as a stark reminder of a missed opportunity—one that might have defused tensions through shared prosperity rather than military escalation.
Under the plan, Iran would continue centrifuge development and limited pilot enrichment at home, while actual large-scale uranium enrichment would occur in an IAEA‑supervised facility, likely hosted by Oman. The enriched material would serve peaceful purposes, such as fuel for regional reactors, and centrifuge operation would remain in Iranian hands—although advanced know-how would not be shared. This arrangement mirrors existing multilateral nuclear frameworks like those in Europe (EURATOM) and Mongolia/Argentina (ABACC), where oversight is collective and transparent.
To solidify this initiative, the authors suggested it receive a U.N. Security Council mandate, U.S. Congressional approval, and endorsement from Iran’s Majlis to guard against future political reversals—such as those that undermined the 2015 JCPOA. They argue that this integrated, commercially-oriented nuclear framework could lift sanctions, reintegrate Iran into the IAEA system, and potentially pave the way toward a Middle East nuclear‑weapon‑free zone.
This consortium was portrayed as a pragmatic, peace‑building strategy designed to align regional cooperation, economic interests, and U.S. diplomacy—prioritizing collaboration over confrontation. Unfortunately, this proposal is now off the table as we witness the haste to resolve issues through military means.
Professor von Hippel is also co-founder and co-director of the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University, New Jersey, a world-renowned institution for peace science research and training on technical and political aspects of nuclear arms control and disarmament. His work makes him a role model in Germany and worldwide for tireless scientific peace research.
The Göttingen Peace Prize 2025 was awarded to him for his extraordinary services and his tireless commitment to peace and security. Below is a presentation by Professor von Hippel that he presented to the audience at his award ceremony:
Praesentation-Preistraeger-Frank-von-Hippel_Englisch
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