RSIS-CNA Live Recording of “Think Tank” Panel Discussion Programme: Episode 1

Synopsis 

Terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, beheadings by militant groups in the Philippines, etc. show the magnitude and severity of the ad hoc threat of terrorism. Global terrorism’s ongoing threat to national security is challenging the social stability and security of states. How can states protect themselves from the threat of terrorism? What are the fundamental ideologies that terrorists are acting on?  How can states get to the heart of the terror organisations to combat them?

About the Speakers 

Nur Azlin Mohamed Yasin is an Associate Research Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), a Centre of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. She received her MSc in Strategic Studies from RSIS in 2011. She is part of the informatics team which reports on observations gathered from extremist and terrorist online sites in the Indonesian, Malay, Arabic, English, Urdu, Russian and Uighur languages. She specialises on Bahasa Indonesia and Malay language extremist and terrorist online sites manned by individuals from Southeast Asia particularly Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, its impact on the society, and its role in the radicalisation process of an individual. At current, her research focus centres on monitoring Southeast Asian terrorists in Syria and Iraq and their network in the region. She collaborates with computer engineers from several agencies including those from the NTU School of Computer Engineering and the Living Analytics Research Centre (LARC) at Singapore Management University (SMU). She has conducted training programmes for Counter Terrorism Security and Intelligence Practitioners and Analysts in Southeast Asia and is the main instructor for the ICPVTR Security Informatics course aimed at equipping security analysts with the skills and knowledge to monitor extremist and terrorist activities online. 

Arnaud Vaissié began his career as a Financial Executive in France, after graduating from the Paris Institute of Political Sciences, . In 1985, alongside Dr Pascal Rey-Herme, Arnaud Vaissié co-founded the company that is today International SOS and has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the organisation for the last 30 years. In addition to International SOS, Arnaud Vaissié is active in many global organisations. He chairs CCI France International, the Union of French Chambers of Commerce and Industry abroad, as well as the France-Singapore committee at MEDEF, the French employers’ organisation. Vaissié is also a Board Member of ‘Institut Montaigne’, a French think tank with the aim of promoting competitiveness and social cohesion to help shape public policy in France. Lastly, in 2004, he co-founded ‘Cercle d’outre-Manche (CoM)’, a French London-based think tank whose aim is to benchmark French and British competitiveness and suggest new policy initiatives. Arnaud Vaissié is a ‘chevalier de la Légion d’honneur’, the highest decoration in France, and an ‘officier de l’ordre national du Mérite’. Furthermore, in 2009, he was honoured as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year from Singapore.

Ridzwan Rahmat graduated from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) with a Master of Science (Strategic Studies) in 2011 and has worked with a government agency monitoring the movement of strategic items in the region. Ridzwan is currently a senior defence and security analyst with IHS Jane’s and keeps an eye on strategic and security matters in the region. He has given briefings to government agencies and private sector audiences on various subjects, including on the Islamic State’s Malay archipelago unit, Khatibah Nusantara.

Sumanto Al Qurtuby is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Prior to joining KFUPM, he was a visiting professor and a research fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the United States. He has degrees in anthropology, sociology, conflict transformation, and Islamic studies. He holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Boston University and an MA in Conflict and Peace Studies from Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. His research interests focus on the study of Muslim politics and cultures; conflict, violence, and peacebuilding; inter-and intra-religious relations, the role of religion in public sphere, and Arab-Indonesian connection. A columnist and a freelancer of several media outlets such as Deutsche Welle, Jakarta Globe, Gatra, among others, he has authored, co-authored, and written more than 16 books, dozens of academic articles, and hundreds of popular essays (in Indonesian language and English). His most recent book from Routledge (London & New York) is Religious Violence and Conciliation in Indonesia: Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas. He is now completing a book manuscript on Islam, Travel, and Learning: Saudi-Indonesian Muslim Intellectual Networks, in addition to conducting research on Saudi Arabia’s domestic terrorism and counterterrorism.