Career
Ahsan secured first class in M.A in Economics from the Dhaka University (1959) and M.A in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1962). He stood first in the Civil and Foreign Services examination of Pakistan and joined the Foreign Service in 1961 and held several diplomatic positions. After Bangladesh’s independence Ahsan served in the Bangladeshi Foreign Service for 34 years, ending his career as the Bangladeshi Ambassador to Washington, District of Columbia. He served as the country’s Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador to Poland, Italy, Pakistan and the United States (1991-1993).
He was the first Secretary-General of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) (1987-1989) as well as Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh (1989-1991).
Abul Ahsan served as Vice-President at the Independent University Bangladesh. He was Chairperson of the Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and was involved in governance and election related activities for several years, and also held the position of President of Center for Democracy a citizen’s organization devoted to promotion of good governance and democracy.
He represented Bangladesh at a large number of meetings and conferences including United Nations General Assembly and Security Council Sessions, Summit and Ministerial level meetings of the Commonwealth, the Non-aligned Movement and the Organization of Islamic Conference (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation). He is the author of the book South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation: A Perspective and jointly edited two publications by Independent University Bangladesh entitled Education in a Rapidly Changing World: Focus on Bangladesh and Indigenous Peoples of Bangladesh.
He co-chaired a study conducted by the Asia Foundation which was published in 2004 under the title America’s role in Asia.
He had contributed a large number of papers and articles on political, security and public policy issues to national and regional journals and newspapers. He died on 7 December 2008 after going into cardiac arrest.