Members

The Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN) has over one hundred members from eighteen countries across Asia and the Pacific, consisting of former political, diplomatic and military leaders, senior government officials, and scholars and opinion leaders. APLN aims to inform and energize public opinion, especially high-level policymakers, to take seriously the very real threats posed by nuclear weapons, and to do everything possible to achieve a world in which they are contained, diminished and eventually eliminated.

ABE Nobuyasu

ABE Nobuyasu

Senior Advisor to the Council on Strategic Risks

Abe Nobuyasu is a former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs and former Director-General for Arms Control and Science Affairs at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Abe Nobuyasu was the Commissioner of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (2014-17). He is a former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs (2003-06) and former Director-General for Arms Control and Science Affairs (1997-99) of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as Director of the Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (currently Center for Disarmament, Science and Technology (CDAST) at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (2008-2014).

During his service in the Japanese Foreign Ministry, besides serving as ambassador in Saudi Arabia (2001-03) and Switzerland (2006-08), he was engaged in a number of multilateral diplomatic appointments including his services as sub-sherpa for the G7 Summits (1992-94), ambassador to the IAEA and other international organizations in Vienna (1999-2001), and a member of the UN mission in New York (1987-90, 1996-97). He served as a member of the Advisory Board to the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) from 2008 to 2010.

Ambassador Abe studied at Tokyo University (1964-67) and at Amherst College (1967-69, BA), later continuing his studies as an international fellow at the Harvard (Weatherhead) Center for International Affairs (1986-87) and as a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs with its project on Managing the Atom (2018-19). He currently serves as a senior advisor to the Council on Strategic Risks.