Dr Graham Ong-Webb is an Adjunct Fellow at RSIS. He is also Vice President, Head of the Future Technology Centre, at Singapore Technologies (ST) Engineering, which is Asia’s largest defence and engineering group covering the aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine sectors.
Graham’s main research is centred on the transformative role and impact of Industry 4.0 technologies (especially artificial intelligence or AI, robotics, and 5G) on people and smart cities, national defence (particularly in unmanned warfare through AI-enabled autonomous platforms) and homeland security.
Graham also provides media commentary on geopolitical, economic, and technological developments pertaining to the Asia Pacific.
In addition to editing several book volumes, Graham has published in the Journal of Strategic Studies, The Journal of International Studies, Jane’s Intelligence Review, and World Defence Systems.
Previously, Graham was a Research Fellow at RSIS, where he resided at the Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office from September 2017 to May 2019, covering the Future Issues and Technology portfolio. From November 2014 to August 2017, Graham was under the Military Studies Programme. Since 2014, Graham has been affiliated with the International Political Economy Programme where he continues to teach a postgraduate module on political risk analysis.
Prior to RSIS, Graham was Chief Operating Officer at the Future-Moves Group, Senior Consultant with the Control Risks Group, and Managing Editor (and Research Analyst) at Jane’s by IHS Markit.
In addition to having lectured at RSIS, Graham has taught at the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College (at the SAFTI Military Institute), the Royal Defence Academy in the United Kingdom, the Royal Brunei Defence Academy (through Universiti Brunei Darussalam), the National University of Singapore, the Singapore University of the Social Sciences, ESSEC Business School (École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales), and the Security Industry Institute at Temasek Polytechnic.
A Commonwealth Scholar, Graham completed his PhD at the Centre for Science and Security Studies, at King’s College London, where he concurrently attained his Associate of King’s College (AKC) degree in theology, winning the Leathes Prize. He read for his Master of Science in International Relations at the London School of Economics (LSE)—with concentrations taken at the LSE’s Methodology Institute—on a Sir Tan Cheng Lock Master of Arts Scholarship. He also earned his Bachelor of Social Science (Honours, Second Upper Division) in Political Science from the National University of Singapore (NUS), supported by a NUS-Shaw Foundation Scholarship.
As a commissioned army officer in Singapore’s equivalent to the military reserve (known as National Service) within the Singapore Armed Forces, Graham completed his Command and Staff Course (CSC) at the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College within the SAFTI Military Institute in 2013, emerging as Distinguished Graduate.
