LKI and APLN to host landmark dialogue on ‘Nuclear Policy and Prospects for Disarmament in the New World Order’

February 12, 2018    Reading Time: 2 minutes

Reading Time: 2 min read

Seating is limited and by invitation. To register your interest, please email your name and affiliated organisation to programmes@lki.lk

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The Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKI) and the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN) will jointly host a lecture by Prof. Ramesh Thakur of the Australian National University and Co-Convenor of APLN, on “Nuclear Policy and Prospects for Disarmament in the New World Order.” This lecture will be held on Monday, 19 February 2018 from 4:30 PM to 6:15 PM at the Lighthouse at LKI, 24 Horton Place, Colombo 7.

Prof. Nayani Melegoda, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Colombo, and member of the LKI Board of Management will deliver the introductory remarks. The lecture will be followed by an expert panel discussion moderated by Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs. The panelists will include Prof. Thakur; Ms. Sadia Tasleem, lecturer in the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University; Dr. Li Bin, Director of the Arms Control Program, Tsinghua University; Mr. Rakesh Sood, India’s former Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva; and Mr. H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, Sri Lanka’s former Foreign Secretary and former Permanent Representative to the UN. The event will convene the attendance of policymakers and scholars, as well as representatives from the private sector, think tanks, civil society, students, and the media.

Prof. Ramesh Thakur is the Director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, and Co-Convenor of APLN. Educated in India and Canada, he was previously a Professor of International Relations at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and Professor and Head of the Peace Research Centre at the Australian National University. He has served as a consultant/adviser to the Australian and New Zealand governments on arms control, disarmament and international security issues. He was also a Commissioner and one of the principal authors of The Responsibility to Protect (2001), and a Senior Adviser on Reforms and Principal Writer of the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s second reform report (2002).

The APLN has more than 90 members from 15 countries across Asia and the Pacific, consisting of former political, official and military leaders in senior positions as well as opinion leaders and shapers from other sectors of society. As an advocacy group, the APLN aims to inform and energise public opinion, especially high-level policymakers, about the threat of nuclear weapons, and to strive achieve a world in which they are contained, diminished and eventually eliminated. In Sri Lanka, the members of APLN are Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala, Mr. H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, and Dr. Dinusha Panditaratne, Executive Director of LKI.

LKI is a think tank which analyses Sri Lanka’s international relations and strategic interests, to provide insights and recommendations that advance justice, peace, prosperity and sustainability. It reflects the vision of the late Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar by promoting the country’s intellectual profile in foreign policy research and engagement. More information about the event is available at www.lki.lk.