Research Areas

APLN has worked with partners in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the United States to highlight the benefits of independent, internal “fail-safe” reviews in nuclear-armed states. Fail-safe reviews are aimed at strengthening safeguards to prevent unauthorized, inadvertent, or mistaken use of a nuclear weapon, including through false warning of an attack. These reviews would be effective unilateral nuclear risk-reduction steps, not requiring any negotiation, treaty, or verification.

The APLN Asia Dialogue on China-US Relations brings together senior experts and scholars from China, the United States, and the wider Asia-Pacific region to discuss China-US relations within a regional context. The project aims to plug knowledge gaps and increase the understanding among regional stakeholders of how complex regional dynamics impact China-US relations; increase awareness of the Asia-centred dynamics that influence China-US bilateral relations; to increase the sense of agency and responsibility among states in Asia on their capacity to shape the region’s security environment; and to address China-US geopolitical tensions via a third-party, Asia-centred approach, which offers the opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue on issues that are difficult to address in bilateral China-US Track 2 initiatives. The project is supported by a generous grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.