Update on the leadership of APLN

There has been a fundamental change of the APLN leadership since September,2019. The old system of co-conveners(Ramesh Tahkur and Chung-in Moon) was dissolved and a new leadership structurewas introduced as in the following:

– Chairman of APLN: Gareth Evans (original APLNconvener, Chancellor of Australian National University and Former ForeignMinister of Australia)

– Vice-Chairman and Executive Director: Chung-in Moon(Special Advisor to the ROK President for National Security and Foreign Affairsand Distinguished University Professor, Yonsei University)

– Director of Research: Peter Hayes (The Nautilus)

– Board of Directors: Mely Caballero Anthony (Head ofthe Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, the S. Rajaratnam School ofInternational Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), DesBrown (Member of UK Parliament and Vice-Chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative,UK ), Sung-hwan Kim (​Former ROK Foreign Minister), Manpreet Sethi (SeniorFellow, Center for Air Power Studies, India), Tatsujiro Suzuki (Director andProfessor of Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University,Japan), Ramesh Thakur (Director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation andDisarmament, ANU), Nyamosor Tuya (Former Minister for External Relations,Mongolia) and Tong Zhao (Associate, Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy,China).

Under the new leadership of Chairman Gareth Evans,APLN has undertaken several important administrative measures. First, APLN hasbeen established as a non-profit legal entity in the Republic of Korea. Withthe license for the non-profit status from the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MOFA) and the certified copy of the register from the registry office of theSeoul District Court, APLN is a perfectly legal entity, eligible to apply forboth governmental and non-governmental research funds. It can also undertakejoint research with other Korean entities.

Second, APLN has now established a firm leadership under Gareth Evans. Chung-in Moon, as Vice-Chair and Executive Director, is assisting Chairman and conducts a daily operation of APLN. Peter Hayes, thefounder of Nautilus, is also working as Director of Research. The board of directors, which is newly established, combines both eminent and expert persons and is balanced in functional orientation, gender, and geographic diversification.

Finally, APLN is trying to recruit new members of APLN, especially from functional experts and planning to recruit and activate young leadership members from the region.