| Team APLN wishes you a happy and healthy new year! This week, APLN Executive Director Shatabhisha Shetty highlights several alarming developments from 2025, which should serve as a wake-up call for the international community to come together to ensure a successful 2026 NPT Review Conference. In the same vein, we offer a retrospective on two essays written by APLN members HMGS Palihakkara and Alvin Chew on concrete measures to strengthen global non-proliferation norms.
As always, we highlight recent activities from our network, including analyses on the US attack on Venezuela, reflections on the movie A House of Dynamite, regional order in Northeast Asia, and Malaysia’s role as ASEAN Chair, and more. |
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2026 Signals Critical Moment to Preserve Nuclear Order
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Shatabhisha Shetty stresses that Asia-Pacific states must take a proactive role at the 2026 NPT Review Conference by demanding concrete risk-reduction measures, supporting nuclear-weapon-free zones, and coordinating positions to uphold the treaty. The Review Conference represents a critical opportunity to prevent further erosion of the nuclear order and strengthen global efforts to reduce nuclear dangers.
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Disarmament in Retreat: Can the NPT Survive a Prolonged Disarmament Drought?
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HMGS Palihakkara, former Chairman of the UN Secretary General’s advisory board on disarmament, highlights that the global nuclear non-proliferation regime is under severe strain, as nuclear weapon states continue to modernise their arsenals while neglecting their disarmament obligations under the NPT. Drawing on decades of personal experience in multilateral negotiations, he proposes four concrete measures to salvage the fate of the NPT ahead of its 2026 Review Conference, while also warning that continued inaction on nuclear disarmament could trigger the collapse of the entire non-proliferation regime.
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Strengthening the NPT via Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone
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Alvin Chew observes that while Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities have temporarily disrupted enrichment activities, Iran’s latent capabilities and stockpile of highly enriched uranium remain a concern. He emphasises that restoring transparency through IAEA oversight and advancing a Middle East nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) are essential steps to strengthen both regional and global non-proliferation norms.
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APLN has over 170 members from 23 countries in the Asia-Pacific.
Each week, we feature their latest contributions
to global and regional security debates.
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Chung-in Moon, APLN Vice Chair, was interviewed by CGTN, where he commented that the only way for South Korea to survive and prosper is to maintain peace in the region, move from an alliance-based defence system toward multilateral security cooperation, and promote open regionalism.
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| Shyam Saran, former Foreign Secretary of India, wrote for The Tribune and argued that India should pursue deeper regional trade integration, explore greater strategic coordination with Asian partners such as Japan, South Korea and Australia, and build economic and contingency resilience against potential global financial shocks. |
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| Manpreet Sethi, APLN Senior Research Adviser, drew on the film A House of Dynamite to derive four core lessons on contemporary nuclear risks: the limits of ballistic missile defence, the dangers of compressed nuclear decision-making under uncertainty, the need for channels of communication during crises, and the consequences of a nuclear attack. |
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| Tong Zhao, Senior Fellow at the Nuclear Policy Programme and the China Centre of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, analysed how the US attack on Venezuela could reshape Chinese strategic thinking by undermining international norms and reinforcing Beijing’s belief that hard power, rather than a rule-based order, increasingly governs global politics. |
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| Elina Noor, Senior Fellow in the Asia Programme at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, highlighted how Malaysia’s chairmanship aimed to address short-term challenges while laying the groundwork for reducing ASEAN’s longer-term exposure to external stresses. |
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