A far cry from a Miss America pageant, a new Washington University student group, Global Zero, has a much more modest goal: to help eliminate nuclear weapons by 2030.

Global Zero is an international organization affiliated with the World Security Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. Backed by many prominent political and military figures, such as former Queen Noor of Jordan and former President Jimmy Carter, its aim is “a world without nuclear weapons,” according to its Web site.

Established at a convention in Paris in December 2008, Global Zero has set up a four-phase plan toward its goal, beginning with a drastic reduction in weapons by the United States and Russia, with this reduction eventually spreading to all countries. Global Zero has also proposed a verification system to ensure enforcement.

While it previously focused on gathering support from world leaders, Global Zero has started to hone in on college campuses. Ten chapters, including the one at Wash. U., will launch this fall across the nation.

Sophomore Parsa Bastani heads the University’s chapter, having completed an internship and student leadership training at Global Zero’s headquarters over the summer.

Bastani was inspired to start the chapter after taking a class on nuclear policy with anthropology professor James Wertsch, which culminated in a conference with a partner university in Shanghai.

“After that whole process, I really started caring about this issue, and I got kind of invested in it, just wondering why we still have these weapons that are so dangerous and can annihilate so many people,” he said.

Much of the problem stems from a lack of discussion and understanding of the issue, according to Wertsch.

“When we want to think about going to zero nuclear arms, [people’s] first reaction is, ‘I didn’t know we had nuclear arms,’” he said. “With the end of the Cold War, people thought, ‘Oh, it’s over, we won, no problem.’”

But nuclear weapons are, in fact, still very much a problem in the world today. Although there has been a reduction from the Cold War high of 76,000 weapons, more than 20,000 still remain, with historically low rates of disassembling, Bastani said.

Complicating the issue is the fact that these already dangerous weapons may be in dangerous hands.

“It’s not just numbers [of weapons] but the number of actors who have these,” Wertsch said. “If Iran gets developed nuclear weapons, it’s not just Iran we worry about, but other countries in the Middle East [as well].”

Additionally, as Bastani said, terrorist groups are also a risk because of the low security on weapons in some areas.

“The fact that a person could get a hold of [a weapon] and explode it in a big city is a huge threat right now,” he said. Herein lies Global Zero’s goal: not only to reduce the number of nuclear weapons, but also to eliminate them completely.

Although the issue is clearly a complex one, Wertsch said he believes that the solution lies in spreading knowledge and awareness.

“If just one nuclear weapon, even a small one, goes off anywhere, 9/11 is just absolutely nothing compared to what a nuclear weapon would do,” he said. “Then all of us…will say, ‘Who’s responsible?’ Well, we all are, if we don’t talk about it.”

“Mostly, we need to have a much more thorough discussion of what the facts are, what the history’s been, how did we get in this situation and what the options are,” he added.

Sophomore Ellie Cooper, a member of Global Zero, agreed, saying that her hope for the group is “to educate the campus about the grave threat still posed by nuclear weapons.”

Bastani noted that the group is not officially recognized by Student Union yet, so its options and membership are somewhat limited. He hopes to plan events and attract speakers like Queen Noor in order to raise recognition and knowledge of the group and of nuclear weapons. “People will really start caring if we can get someone really famous and high policy to come,” he said.

“There are a lot of great ideas, a lot of passion and a desire to really get things done; we just don’t quite have enough people-power yet,” Cooper said.

But they remain optimistic about the group’s and the movement’s future.

“The president and the government respond to people,” Barsani said. “We can pressure them if we can start this grassroots campaign and eventually grow to a huge force around campuses across the country.”

“It’s the ideal time to make headway on this issue…” Cooper said. “There are political leaders in power around the world who are willing to sit down and discuss Global Zero seriously, not just as a crazy fringe movement.”

Global Zero will kick off at 6 p.m. on Thursday in McMillan 149 with a live discussion with Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr., along with other chapters across the country.