Eighty years ago, in August 1945, the world saw hope and horror. On August 1, 1945, just weeks after the adoption of the UN Charter, the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union signed the Potsdam Agreement, which produced hope for a peaceful post-war world. Only some days later, the world saw the horror of nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A cold war followed.

In 1962, when the world was on the brink of a nuclear war in the Cuban crisis, one idea to avoid such a conflict was the establishment of direct communication links between the US and the Soviet Union, the so-called “red telephone”. Enhanced communication, this was the belief, could help to pave the way for better understanding and enhanced cooperation. In the 1990s, many stakeholders saw in the evolving Internet a “peacemaker”. The Internet allowed anybody, anytime, to communicate with anybody, regardless of frontiers around the globe.

In his “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” John Perry Barlow argued in February 1996: “We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity”.

In 2003, 193 governments signed the “Geneva Declaration of Principles” after the first phase of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), promising to harness the potential of information and communication technology to promote the development of global partnerships for a more peaceful, just and prosperous world”.

Now, at the eve of the review of the WSIS (WSIS+20) in December 2025, the world is less peaceful than it was in 2003. And with the development of new technologies, the risk that confrontational situations will go out of control is even growing.

In 1945, the nuclear bomb was heralded as a scientific breakthrough. But it also marked the beginning of a nuclear arms race. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is another transformative scientific advance. And once again, we are witnessing the emergence of an arms race, this time in AI.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have shown that new technologies have changed the nature of war. Ukraine and Gaza are now testbeds for a new generation of Internet-based autonomous weapons systems (AWS). The risk for an AI war, where the fighting goes out of human control, is growing. This is a fundamental question, which should be discussed not only by governments and the military-industrial complex, but by the whole society, by all stakeholders in the international community.

From the Russell-Einstein-Manifesto to the Potsdam Call

In 1955, a group of academics signed the “Russell-Einstein Manifesto” and called on the leaders of the world to do everything to avoid a nuclear war. In a certain way, their call was heard. Regardless of the nuclear arms race and numerous military conflicts around the globe, no government used the “nuclear option” since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Inspired by the “Russel-Einstein-Manifesto”, a group of 34 academics from 21 countries from the Global South and the Global North, who are involved in global discussions and negotiations around Internet Governance and Cybersecurity, raised their voice after the IGF in Lillestroem (June 2025) by drafting a “Potsdam Call on Autonomous Weapon Systems”. They used the 80th anniversary of Potsdam, Hiroshima and Nagasaki and called on today’s world leaders to remember this historical legacy and to ensure that decisions over life and death remain in human hands.

The signatories of the “Potsdam Call” include several members of the “Internet Hall of Fame” as Harmut Glaser, Demi Getschko, Nii Quaynor and Vint Cerf, leading technical experts from BRICS countries like Brazil, India, South Africa and China as well as recognized academics from European and US academic institutions as Stanford University, Columbia University, University of Montreal, London School of Economics, Sorbonne Paris, University of Oslo, University of Innsbruck, Lodz University and members of the Leibnitz Society of Sciences from Germany, who initiated the call.

The academics call on today’s world leaders to resolve intergovernmental conflicts not through automation and algorithmic targeting, but in accordance with international law and the shared sense of humanity.

In a letter to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the president of the 80th UN General Assembly (UNGA), Annalena Baerbock, they express their hope, that the “Potsdam Call” will contribute in a constructive way to the forthcoming negotiations on autonomous weapon systems (AWS) at the 80th UN General Assembly, which are scheduled for October 2025 in New York. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the president of the International Red Cross (IRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, want to see an AWS agreement until the end of 2026.

Below is the text of the Potsdam Call, as well as the list of the 34 signatories

The Potsdam Call on Autonomous Weapon Systems

Eighty years ago, the world witnessed the catastrophic consequences of the first atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet it also saw the beginnings of a postwar order built on a commitment to peace. In July 1945, the Charter of the United Nations was adopted, and on August 1, 1945, the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union signed the Potsdam Agreement.

A decade later, a group of scientists, led by Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell, issued a manifesto urging the leaders of the world powers to do everything in their power to prevent nuclear war. They warned: “We have to learn to think in a new way… not what steps can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer… but what steps can be taken to prevent a military contest of which the issue must be disastrous to all parties.”

This appeal had a lasting effect. Despite numerous conflicts over the decades, nuclear weapons—recognized as weapons of mass destruction—have never been used in war again.

Yet the world has not become peaceful. We face continued regional and local wars, with ever more sophisticated weapon systems. While governments have so far refrained from using the “nuclear option,” a new threat is emerging, one that raises fundamentally different but potentially comparably grave risks: autonomous weapon systems (AWS).

Eighty years ago, the nuclear bomb was heralded as a scientific breakthrough. But it also marked the beginning of a nuclear arms race. Today, artificial intelligence (AI)—powerful enough to enable the deployment of lethal autonomous weapon systems—is another transformative scientific advance. And once again, we are witnessing the emergence of an arms race, this time in AI.

We, the signatories of the “Potsdam Call on Autonomous Weapon Systems”, recognize that nuclear weapons and AWS are not the same. Nuclear weapons are designed for mass destruction. AWS, by contrast, enables targeted strikes. Yet their danger lies elsewhere: in the potential loss of meaningful human control. When machines are given the power to make life-and-death decisions, the threshold for violence may be dramatically lowered, and the scale of deployment could result in destruction on a scale that challenges existing legal and ethical frameworks.

On June 14, 2024, the late Pope Francis addressed the G7 leaders in Apulia, warning: “In light of the tragedy that is armed conflict, it is urgent to reconsider the development and use of devices like the so-called ‘lethal autonomous weapons’ and ultimately ban their use… No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being.”

We, the undersigned scientists, are not naive. We understand that once war breaks out, all military options may be considered. But history shows that even adversaries with deep disagreements have been able to negotiate disarmament agreements—such as those concluded in the 1960s and 1970s—to reduce the risk of escalation. A similar path must be pursued for AWS.

As Einstein and Russell reminded us in 1955: “We appeal, as human beings, to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.”

Eighty years ago, the city of Potsdam hosted the leaders of three major powers, who laid the groundwork for a postwar order aligned with the principles of the United Nations Charter, signed weeks earlier in San Francisco.

Eighty years later, we call on today’s world leaders to remember this legacy. Ensure that decisions over life and death remain in human hands. And commit to resolving conflicts not through automation and algorithmic targeting, but in accordance with international law and the shared sense of humanity.

Signatories of the Potsdam Call

Prof. Dr. Peng Hwa Ang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Dr. Olga Cavalli, Dean of the National Defense Faculty of Argentina, Director of the South School on Internet Governance, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Dr. Vint Cerf, Co-Chair of the Leadership Panel of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF), Member of the Internet Hall of Fame, Washington, D.C., United States; William J. Drake, Director of International Studies and Adjunct Professor, Columbia Business School, New York, United States; Anriette Esterhuysen, Association for Progressive Communication, former Chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the UN Internet Governance Forum, Johannesburg, South Africa; Roberto Gaetano, former Vice-Chair of the ICANN Board of Directors, Italy; Dr. Jochen Fleischhacker, Member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences to Berlin, Germany; Prof. Dr. Divina Frau-Meigs, Professor Emerita, Communication and Information Sciences, Media and Information, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, France; Prof. Dr. habil. Klaus Fuchs-Kitowski, Member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences to Berlin, Germany; Prof. Dr. Demi Getschko, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Member of the Internet Hall of Fame, Brazil; Prof. Dr. Hartmut Glaser, University of São Paulo, Member of the Internet Hall of Fame, Brazil; Prof. Dr Cees J. Hamelink, Athena Professor of Health & Human Rights at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Prof. Dr. Martin E. Helmann, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Turing Award Laureate, United States; Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, LL.M. (Harvard), Professor of Innovation, Theory and Philosophy of Law, University of Innsbruck, Austria; Prof. Dr. sc. rer. pol. Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, Professor Emeritus for Internet Policy and Regulation, University of Aarhus, former Member of the Global Commission on Stability in Cyberspace, Leipzig, Germany; Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Kreowski, Professor Emeritus for Theoretical Computer Science, University of Bremen, Member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences to Berlin, Germany; Prof. Dr. Joanna Kulesza, Professor of International Law, Lodz Cyber Hub, University of Lodz, Poland; Ram Mohan, Chief Strategy Officer, Identity Digital; Chair, ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC), India; Prof. Dr. Tobias Mahler, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Norway; Prof. Dr. Robin Mansell, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom; Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel, President & CEO German University of Digital Science, Potsdam, Germany; Prof. Dr. Kaarle Nordenstreng, Professor Emeritus of Journalism and Mass Communication, Tampere University, former President of International Organization of Journalists, Finland; Prof. Dr. Claudia Padovani, University of Padova, Italy; Prof. Dr. habil. rer. nat. Gerhard Pfaff, Member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences to Berlin, Germany; Dr. Nii Narku Quaynor, Chairman, Ghana Dot Com Ltd, Member of the Internet Hall of Fame, Accra, Ghana; Prof. Dr. Marc Raboy, Professor Emeritus in Ethics, Media and Communications at McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Prof. Dr. Andrei Richter, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia; Prof. Dr. Larisa Schippel, Member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences to Berlin, Germany; Prof. Dr. Dieter Segert, University of Vienna, Member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences to Berlin, Germany; Prof. Dr. Johannes Varwick, Professor of International Relations at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, President of the Scientific Forum on International Security, Germany; Jimena Sofia Viveros Alvarez, CEO of IQuilibriumAI, Member of the Global Commission on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Military Field, Mexico; Prof. Dr. Flávio Rech Wagner, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Informatics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Allegre, Brazil; Prof. Dr. Rolf H. Weber, Faculty of Law, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Prof. Dr. Peixi Xu, Director of the Global Internet Governance Studies Center at the Communication University of China, Bejing, China