ABSTRACT
‘What is happening in Bosnia is proof of the failure, the cowardice, the blindness, of us in the West. It shows we do not want to learn what this century should have taught us: that war is prevented with war.’ Speaking at his home in Kenley, in the wet hills south of London, Karl Popper takes up the question he has most at heart: the threat of a nuclear conflict coming from the Balkans. At 91 years of age, the Viennese philosopher makes a great effort to preserve his health and his capacity for work. Two years ago, when I last went to visit him, he was deep in study of the Cuban missile crisis and of Khrushchev’s and Sakharov’s memoirs. On the question of the Soviet scientist’s ‘grave offences’ – Popper holds him mainly responsible for the mega-H-bombs around in the world – he has not changed his views. Despite the later merits that earned Sakharov a Nobel Peace Prize, Popper considers that had it not been for him the world would today be a decidedly safer place.
