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Paper short abstract

This paper will explore a case of preventive diplomacy to avoid nuclear war: Daisaku Ikeda (Soka Gakkai Honorary President)’s private diplomacy and Soka Gakkai’s movement against the weapons.

Paper long abstract

Nuclear weapons are a culmination of leading-edge technologies in the human history. Humankind has never invented weapons which prevail them. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has elevated the risk of using the weapons of mass-destruction to a level not seen since the Cold War period. Soka Gakkai has been modernizing Buddhism as a religion relevant for contemporary human societies through a worldwide action promoting peace, culture, and education over a half century. Their anti-nuclear weapon activities are an embodiment of the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, which was founded in the 13th century, Japan, in the present day. Preventive diplomacy is a comparably new concept of diplomacy, which was introduced after the Cold War, but Ikeda conducted his private diplomacy to mitigate tensions between nuclear weapon states and to avoid their warfare since 1960s. This Soka Gakkai’s historical case might deliver an ideal model of preventive diplomacy to avoid apocalyptic nuclear war.