Niels Bohr Institute > Who, What, When > > Niels Bohr's career > An 'Open World'

1943-01-01

An 'Open World' 

Although one of the main contributors to the new nuclear physics, Bohr did not at first believe in the feasibility of making an atomic bomb within a foreseeable future. This was the basis for his rejection of a secret invitation to move to England in early 1943, but after having been forced to escape from Nazi-occupied Denmark to neutral Sweden in October that year, he changed his mind and accepted the invitation.

Briefings in England convinced him immediately that the atomic bomb was in fact on the way to becoming a reality in the United States. Agreeing to join the project, Bohr started at the same time a campaign on his own seeking to convince British and American statesmen to inform the Soviet Union of the project's existence in order to avoid a complete loss of mutual confidence, and hence an arms race, after the war.

To Bohr, the existence of weapons of mass destruction necessitated an ‘Open World', in which all scientific and technical information was shared between nations in order to avoid any kind of unfounded suspicion and critical misunderstanding.

With his unstoppable determination, Bohr was able to arrange personal interviews about the matter with both Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt. However, his advice was not heeded.

Bohr continued his campaign after the war, communicating extensively with U.S. Foreign Secretary George Marshall in 1948 and writing a lengthy open letter to the United Nations in 1950 describing publicly his prior efforts which had so far been conducted with the statesmen in confidence.

Bohr's manifold efforts for an ‘Open World' continued to be his main preoccupation until the end of his life in 1962.

(Written by Finn Aaserud, director, Niels Bohr Archive)