Maj. Gen. (ret.) Xu Guangyu

Military Commander

China

Retired Major General Xu Guangyu is a senior consultant of the Chinese Military Disarmament Control Council and senior research at the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association. He formerly served as vice president of the People’s Liberation Army Defense Institute of China. He has served as a high-level consultant for the National Defense University Publishing House and the Beijing Three Strategies of Huang Shigong Scientific Research Institute. He is widely regarded as an expert of Chinese contemporary military affairs and has continued to act as an arms control and disarmament expert for the army after retiring from the PLA.

Prof. Yan Xuetong

National Security Expert

China

Professor Yan Xuetong is the director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University and the chief editor of The Chinese Journal of International Politics. He is also vice chairman of the China Association of International Relations Studies and the China Association of American Studies. He serves as a board member of the China Association of UN Studies, the China Association of Arms Control and Disarmament and the China Association of International Relations Studies. Additionally, Yan is an adjunct professor of the National Defense University and a senior research fellow of the National Security Committee. He is the author of dozens of publications, including “International Politics and China,” “Peace and Security in East Asia” and “Strategic Thinking about China’s Rise.”

Rear Adm. (ret.) Yang Yi

Military Commander

China

Retired Rear Admiral Yang Yi is the former director and current research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Studies at China’s National Defense University. He joined the Chinese navy in 1968 and has held various positions since, including naval technical assistance expert to the navy of Cameroon, director of the People’s Liberation Army’s Navy Foreign Affairs Bureau and international policy advisor to the commander-in-chief of the PLA navy. From 1995 to 2000, he served as the naval attaché in the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC. Retiring after more than 40 years in the Chinese navy, Yang is considered an expert on national security and military strategy, international relations and foreign policy.

Dr. Yang Jiemian

National Security Expert

China

Dr. Yang Jiemian is current senior fellow and vice president and former president of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies (SIIS), a leading Chinese think tank. Prior to joining SIIS, Yang was the vice president of the Chinese National Association for International Studies. Yang is active in the municipal government of Shanghai, and has published numerous papers and books on American foreign policy, international terrorism, and U.S.-China relations.

Yang is a member of the Global Zero Commission.

Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Yao Yunzhu

Military Commander

China

Major General (ret.) Yao Yunzhu is director of the Center on China-American Defense Relations and senior researcher at the Asia-Pacific Office in the Department of World Studies, both at the People’s Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Science in China. A prominent analyst of nuclear issues, she has published and translated numerous books and articles on military and security issues. She first joined the PLA in 1970. In 2007, she was elected as a member of the 17th CCP Congress and was chosen as one of the Top Ten Outstanding Women in China.

Yao is a member of the Nuclear Crisis Group and the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction.

Col. (ret.) Valery Yarynich

National Security Expert

Russia

The late Colonel Valery Yarynich was candidate of military science and professor at the Academy for Military Sciences. He was named a visiting associate professor at California State University, San Bernardino in 2001. Yarynich was the author of “Evaluation of A Guarantee” and many articles on the issues of arms control and strategic stability in Russian and foreign periodicals. He served in the first Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile division and played a key role in understanding, sharing and promoting the importance of command-and-control systems for nuclear forces. Yarynich passed away on December 13, 2012.

Yarynich is a member of the Global Zero NATO-Russia Commission.

Prof. Muhammad Yunus

Civic Leader

Bangladesh

Professor Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts to promote economic development through innovations in microcredit. The Grameen Bank he created has successfully demonstrated his belief that the world’s poor can transform the conditions of their own lives if given appropriate financial support. He has written extensively about the connections between economic empowerment and peace.

After receiving his doctorate in economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States, Yunus returned to his home country of Bangladesh in 1972. There he founded the Grameen Bank Project in 1976 transforming it into a formal bank in 1983.

Dr. Igor Yurgens

National Security Expert

Russia

Dr. Igor Yurgens is chairman of the management board of the Institute of Contemporary Development. Prior to that, he was the executive secretary of the Russian Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs (RSPP), a leading business lobbying organization in Russia where he is now vice president and the chairman of the Financial Markets Committee of the Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry from 2000 to 2004, among other positions.

Yurgens is a member of the Public Chamber of Russia and deputy chairman of the Expert Council on Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy. He is a professor at the State University – Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

Yurgens is a member of the Global Zero Commission.