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) and Head of International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) 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 Ambassador to Iran. Mr Ong chairs Humanity Matters, a non-profit humanitarian organisation focused on inter-faith understanding and volunteerism, and is based in Singapore.

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 the 11^th Secretary-General of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), based in Jakarta, Indonesia, for 5 years from January 2003.

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 was the Chairman of the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) from 2015 to 2023.

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.

• ASEAN’s Strategic Role in Regional Architecture
• ASEAN’s Relations with External Parties
• ASEAN’s Community-building Initiatives
• Relations between Singapore and Malaysia and India

Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses

• Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses (CTTA) - Volume 12 Issue 01

  06 January, 2020

Books

• The APPSMO Advantage: Strategic Opportunities

  04 August, 2016

Commentaries

• Achieving Connectedness and Cohesion

  16 September, 2022

• Appreciating Diversity: What Has The ICCS Achieved?

  28 June, 2019

• CO17240 | Israeli-Palestine Conflict: Compromise and Restraint Needed

  26 December, 2017

• CO17148 | ASEAN into the Future: Need For Leadership

  07 August, 2017

• CO17146 | Future of Agriculture and Implications for ASEAN

  03 August, 2017

• CO17127 | Singapore and Food Security

  30 June, 2017

• CO16217 | Man of Guts, Instinct and Tenacity

  25 August, 2016

• CO16202 | ASEAN Community: Economic Integration and Development of SMEs

  10 August, 2016

• CO15277 | ASEAN and the EU: Different Paths to Community Building

  22 December, 2015

• CO15227 | Strengthening Energy Security: Key to Sustainable Development in Asia

  26 October, 2015

• CO15064 | Pursuing Mutual Strategic Interests: Lee Kuan Yew’s Role in Singapore–US Relations

  24 March, 2015

Journal Articles

• “Amb Ong Keng Yong on the Role of ASEAN” in Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 2021
• “ASEAN Arts and Culture: The Role of Singapore” (with Ajit Singh, and Le Luong Minh) in ASEANFocus: Bi-monthly Publication of ISEAS-Yusof Shak, Issue 4, 2019. pp. 11-14
• “The ASEAN We Don’t Know” in The Soft Power 30, 2018
• “ASEAN Arts and Culture: The Role of Singapore” in Culture Connections, Vol. 3, 2018, pp. 9-13
• “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” in The Little Nation That Can - Singapore's Foreign Relations and Diplomacy, Vol. 26, 2017, pp. 90-94

Chapters in Edited Books

• “US-China Strategic Competition and Southeast Asia” (with Hoo Tiang Boon) in Henry Huiyao Wang and Mabel Lu Miao, Enhancing Global Governance in a Fragmented World: Prospects, Issues, and the Role of China. : Springer, 2024, pp. 205-214
• “Advancing the ASEAN-Korea Partnership: From Sectoral Dialogue Relations to the New Southern Policy Plus” (with Sarah Teo, and Shawn Ho) in Kwon Hyung Lee and Yoon Jae Ro (Eds.), The New Southern Policy Plus: Progress and Way Forward. Sejong: Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, 2021, pp. 49-67
• “The Making of America Foreign Policy” (with Jean Tan) in Tommy Koh and Daljit Singh, America: A Singapore Perspective. Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2021, pp. 120-127

Op-Eds

• “Tourism Key to Building Connections Between Kazakhstan and Southeast Asia”, TODAY, 1 December 2020
• “G20 Religion and Policy: ‘We Need More Interactions and Pooling of Resources to Tackle the Challenges’”, KAICIID, 11 October 2020
• “The Challenge is How We Make the Most of Diversity”, The Straits Times, 27 June 2019
• “Asia Values: A Free and Open Indo-Pacific”, 2018 Halifax Papers, 8 January 2019
• “What ASEAN’s Enterprises Need to Succeed” (with Phidel Marion G. Vineles), East Asia Forum, 19 August 2016

• Speaker, Virtual Panel Discussion on “An ASEAN Answer to Myanmar’s Crisis?”, organised by the
  Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, 27 April 2021
• Speaker, Tokyo Conference 2021, organised by Genron NPO, 22 March 2021
• Speaker, TIU Global Dialogue on “ASEAN and its Challenges”, organised by the Tokyo International University, 25 February 2021