History of the Asia-Pacific Peace Research Association

Beginnings

On December 5, 1980 a regional affiliate of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) was founded by participants at the Asia Peace Research Conference in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. Yoshikazu Sakamoto, then IPRA Secretary General (1979-1983), played an important role in organizing this conference. The body was named Asia Peace Research Association (APRA) and Takeshi Ishida (1980-1984) was elected as Secretary- General. He was succeeded by Yoshikazu Sakamoto (1984-1991). The secretariat was located in Tokyo from 1984 to 1991.

There was a move to split the association into two: South West Asia and East Asia. This proposal was not approved by a subsequent regional meeting (at the IPRA meeting in Sussex 1986) as there were no clear answers how to cover the financial and management burden of separate associations and since then the association has been a unified body and expanded to include the important Pacific region.

Secretariat Based in Pacific

When Kevin Clements became Secretary- General, the scope of the regional association expanded to embrace the Pacific during a conference at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1991. The new name became the Asia-Pacific Peace Research Association (APPRA). The secretariat went with Kevin when he shifted from New Zealand to the Australian National University.