S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS)

“Combatting Terrorism and Religious Extremism

– Approaches by Uzbekistan and Singapore”

Welcome address by

Ambassador Ong Keng Yong

Executive Deputy Chairman,
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Mr Kakhramon Shakirov

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
Republic of Uzbekistan to the Republic of Singapore

Mr Sanjar Valiev

Deputy Director, Institute for Strategic and
Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Session I: “Expanding cooperation and establishing dialogue between

countries in combating terrorism and religious radicalisation”

Singapore’s experience in countering terrorism – deradicalisation and rehabilitation efforts

Dr Md Feisal Md Hassan

Research Fellow, International Centre
for Political Violence and Terrorism Research

Uzbekistan’s experience in deradicalisation

Professor Bakhtiyor Babadjanov

Head of Department, Institute for Strategic and

Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Moderator

Mr Sadullo Rasulov

Head of Department, Institute for Strategic and

Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Session II: Participation in global and regional projects, aimed at combating terrorism

Uzbekistan’s global and regional initiatives to combat terrorism

Mr Timur Akhmedov

Head of Department, Institute for Strategic and

Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Singapore’s interaction within ASEAN on countering terrorism

Assoc Prof Kumar Ramakrishna

Associate Dean for Policy Studies,
Head, International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, and
Research Adviser, National Security Studies Programme,
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Moderator

Mr Raffaello Pantucci

Senior Fellow, International Centre
for Political Violence and Terrorism Research

Closing remarks by

Mr Sanjar Valiev

Deputy Director, Institute for Strategic and

Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Assoc Prof Kumar Ramakrishna

Abstract

This close-door roundtable aims to bring together experts from the Institute for Strategic
and Regional Studies (ISRS) under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the
International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) at the
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) to discuss their understanding of the
approaches developed by Uzbekistan and Singapore in countering terrorism and religious
extremism. As part of two panel sessions, the speakers will focus on topics related to
deradicalisation efforts by their respective countries as well as the participation of the two
countries in regional and global counter- terrorism initiatives.

Opening Remarks by

Ambassador Ong Keng Yong is Executive Deputy Chairman of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is concurrently Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) at RSIS.

Mr Ong continues to hold the position of Ambassador-at-Large at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also Singapore’s non-resident High Commissioner to Pakistan and non-resident Ambassador to Iran. Mr Ong has been the Chairman of the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) since 2015.

Mr Ong was High Commissioner of Singapore to Malaysia from 2011 to 2014. He served as High Commissioner of Singapore to India and concurrently Singapore’s Ambassador to Nepal from 1996 to 1998.

Mr Ong served as 11th Secretary-General of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), based in Jakarta, Indonesia from January 2003 to January 2008.

Mr Ong started his diplomatic career in 1979 and was posted to the Singapore Embassies in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the United States of America between 1984 and 1994. From September 1998 to December 2002, he was Press Secretary to the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Goh Chok Tong, while holding senior appointments in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, and the People’s Association in Singapore. From 2008 to 2011, he served as Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
Mr Ong graduated from the then University of Singapore with a LLB (Hons). He studied at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., USA, and graduated with a MA in Arab Studies.

Kakhramon Shakirov is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the Republic of Singapore (since June 2018). Mr Shakirov started his professional career in 1992 in the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the Republic of Uzbekistan. He then served in the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Japan from 2001 to 2006 as Trade and Economic Counsellor and from 2010 to 2013 as Trade and Economic Counsellor and successively as Charge d’Affair and Interim. In 2006, Mr Shakirov worked as First Secretary at the Department for Cooperation with Asia-Pacific Countries of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In 2007–2008, he was posted to Uzbekistan’s Embassy in Indonesia as Charge d’Affair and Interim. From 2008 and 2010, he was the deputy director of the “Uzinfoinvest” Agency. From 2013 and 2015, Mr Shakirov worked in the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In 2015, he moved to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan where he worked as the National Coordinator of the European Union’s project. In 2017-2018, he was the chief of the Executive Office in the State Committee for Investments. Mr Shakirov graduated from the Tashkent State University (TSU), Uzbekistan with a degree in Physics. He obtained his master’s degree in International Economic Relations from the Academy of State and Public Construction under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Sanjar Valiev is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies (ISRS) under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Before joining ISRS, Mr Valiev had worked in a number of research centres in Uzbekistan while specialising on the research areas such as strategic planning, security and defense policy, international relations. His articles have appeared in various platforms published in Uzbekistan, Russia, the United States and China. Mr Valiev is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the “Central Asia” journal of the Peshawar University, Pakistan.

About the Speakers

Ustaz Dr Mohamed Feisal Mohamed Hassan is a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR). His research interest is in terrorist rehabilitation, counter-ideology and community engagement. He has spoken on these issues in UK, USA, Pakistan, Denmark, Netherlands, Indonesia, Australia, Italy, Turkey and others. His field research on rehabilitation includes places such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and others. He is secretary and member of the Singapore’s Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) and a Religious Rehabilitation Counselor. He graduated from the International Islamic University Malaysia with an Honours Degree in Philosophy. He obtained his Master of Arts Degree in Islamic Thought from the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), IIUM. His thesis is entitled “Relevance of al-Ghazali’s Doctrine of Al-Wasat (The Desired Balanced Middle Way) in Countering The Ideologies of Extremists with Special Reference to the Jemaah Islamiyyah in Singapore”. He also holds a Msc in International Relations from RSIS, NTU. He obtained his PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia with a thesis entitled “Contextualising wasaṭiyyah from the perspective of the leaders of the Malay/Muslim community in Singapore today”.

Bakhtiyor Babadjanov is Professor and Head of Department at the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies (ISRS) under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. From 1990 to 2017, Bakhtiyor Babadjanov worked at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences. In 1996–2014, Dr. Babadjanov participated in 12 international projects on research of Sufism, studies of Russian colonisation in Central Asia, and the history of khanates. In 2004–2012, he worked at universities in the USA, Japan, France, Russia as a visiting professor. His main interest lies in the study of the history of Sufism in Central Asia, Islamic Epigraphy, the History of Islam in the Colonial and Soviet periods, and the history of “Soviet Orientalism in the East.”

Timur Akhmedov is a Research Fellow and Head of Department at ISRS. He began his career as a correspondent for the socio-political newspaper “Jamiyat” (‘Society’) and joined ISRS as a research staff in 2013. At ISRS, Mr Akhmedov studies the issues of system analysis of religions and inter-confessional problems.

Kumar Ramakrishna is Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Policy Studies, Research Adviser to National Security Studies Programme and Head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He has published in numerous internationally refereed journals and co-edited two well-received books on counter-terrorism, The New Terrorism: Anatomy, Trends and Counter-Strategies (2002) as well as After Bali: The Threat of Terrorism in Southeast Asia (2004). He is also the author of numerous single-authored books including Original Sin? Revising the Revisionist Critique of the 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore (2015) and Singapore Chronicles: Emergency (2016).

Moderators

Sadullo Rasulov is Head of Department, ISRS. His research area includes the issues of security and stability in the Asia Pacific region and international relations. He previously served as a diplomat in the embassies of Uzbekistan in Pakistan and the United States.

Raffaello Pantucci is a Senior Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is the author of We Love Death As You Love Life: Britain’s Suburban Terrorists published by Oxford University Press. Before joining RSIS, he was based at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London where he is currently a Senior Associate Fellow.

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