Dr Shashi Jayakumar

Dr Shashi Jayakumar assumed the appointment as Head, Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) on 1 April 2015, and the appointment of Executive Coordinator, Future Issues and Technology on 1 Aug 2017.

Dr Jayakumar was educated at Oxford University where he studied History (BA 1997, D.Phil, 2001). He has published in various peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes on topics relating to medieval history (the focus of his doctorate). He was a member of the Singapore Administrative Service from 2002-2017. During this time, he was posted to various Ministries, including the Ministries of Defence, Manpower, Information and the Arts, and Community Development, Youth and Sports. He was from August 2011-July 2014 a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His research interests include extremism, social resilience, cyber, and homeland defence. He is currently completing a major book project relating to local (Singapore) politics (forthcoming, National University of Singapore Press, 2020).

• Radicalisation and Countering Violent Extremism
• Singapore’s National Security
• Singapore History post-1965

• Singapore Representative to ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), 2019-2021
• Member, National Library Board, 2015-present
• Chair, National Archives Advisory Committee (NAAC), 2015-2019
• Member, Board of Governors, Republic Polytechnic, 2011-2017
• Chair, School of Management and Communication Advisory Committee, Republic Polytechnic, 2011-2017
• Member, International Advisory Board, Violence: An International Journal, 2018-present

Policy Reports

• Fake News: National Security in the Post-Truth Era

  19 January, 2018

Commentaries

• Return of Great Power Rivalry

  19 August, 2019

• International Conference on Cohesive Societies - Tolerance and its Enemies: Three Observations

  26 June, 2019

• Cyber Security: Will There Be One ASEAN Voice?

  28 May, 2019

• SingHealth Cyber Attack: Learning from COI Findings

  13 February, 2019

• Elections Integrity in Fake News Era: Who Protects, and How?

  29 November, 2018

• Violent Extremism and its Continuum

  17 October, 2018

• CO18041 | Germany’s NetzDG: Template for Dealing with Fake News?

  13 March, 2018

• CO18021 | “Regardless of Religion”: Building a Stronger Singaporean Society

  12 February, 2018

• CO18013 | Cyber Threats: 2018 and Beyond

  26 January, 2018

• CO17203 | The Future of Work: New Underclass, Dystopian Reality?

  30 October, 2017

• CO17151 | Disinformation: Slow Burn Menace

  14 August, 2017

• CO16299 | The Jemaah Islamiyah and its Afterlives

  12 December, 2016

• CO16249 | China-Singapore Ties: The Four Rs Behind the Unhappiness

  06 October, 2016

• CO16137 | Our Skynet Moment: Debating Morality of AI

  07 June, 2016

• CO16074 | The Curious Case of Wang Yuandongyi: Why Do Some Want to Fight With Anti-ISIS Groups?

  06 April, 2016

• CO15209 | IS ‘Trojan Horse’: Seeing Wood for the Trees?

  07 October, 2015

• CO15146 | The Year of the Caliphate: What Lies Ahead?

  29 June, 2015

• CO14215 | Biker Gang Chic and ‘Reverse Jihad’: The “Other” Foreign Fighters

  03 November, 2014

Authored Books

• Singapore Chronicles: PAP (with Albert Lau). Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies & Straits Times Press, 2019

Edited Books / Special Issues

• Terrorism, Radicalisation & Countering Violent Extremism: Practical Considerations & Concerns. Singapore: Palgrave Pivot, 2019
• DRUMS: Distortions, Rumours, Untruths, Misinformation, and Smears (with Norman Vasu, and Benjamin Ang), Eds. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2019
• The Big Ideas of Lee Kuan Yew (with Rahul Sagar), Eds. Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2016
• State, Society and National Security: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co, 2016

Journal Articles

• “Southeast Asian Fighters from Islamic State Leaks: A Historical Snapshot” (with Cameron Sumpter) in Perspectives on Terrorism, 13, 6, 2019. 58-72
• “Transnational Volunteers Against ISIS” in International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), 2019, pp. 1-44
• “Looking Back, Looking Forward” in BiblioAsia, Vol. 15, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 2-5
• “Rethinking ASEAN’s Approach to Counter-terrorism” in East Asia Forum, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2018, pp. 28-29
• “The Islamic State Looks East: The Growing Threat in Southeast Asia” in CTC Sentinel, Vol. 10, Issue 2, 2017,

Chapters in Edited Books

• “Deradicalisation” (with Bartolomeo Conti, Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, Phil Gurski, and Rahma Dauleh) in Eds., International Panel on Exiting Violence: Draft Report 2017-2019. France: Foundation Maison Des Sciences de L’Homme, 2019,
• “The PAP’s Crucible” in Tommy Koh and Scott Wightman (Eds.), 200 Years of Singapore and the United Kingdom. Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2019, pp. 144-153
• “Threats Seen and Unseen, Terrorism and Cyber Attacks in Singapore” in Jan Wouter Vasbinder (Ed.), Disrupted Balance : Society at Risk. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co, 2018, pp. 49-55
• “Singapore in 2017: Testing Times, Within and Without” in Malcolm Cook and Daljit Singh (Eds.), Southeast Asian Affairs 2018. Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2018, pp. 299-320

Op-Eds

• “The Singapore Model: A New Deradicalisation Approach for the UK?” (with Raffaello Pantucci), RUSI Newsbrief, 13 March 2020
• “The 2010s – when tolerance and pluralism came under attack”, Channel News Asia, 6 January 2020
• “America’s Anti-Islamic State Volunteers”, LAWFARE, 1 December 2019
• “Will There be One ASEAN Voice on Cyber?”, The Strategist (Australian Strategic Policy Institute), 22 May 2019
• “Violent Extremism and Its Continuum” (with Rohan Gunaratna), The Straits Times, 11 October 2018
• “The Truly Great Who Flew Above Us”, The Straits Times, 19 August 2018
• “Cyber Threats: 2018 and Beyond” (with Foo Siang-tse), The Straits Times, 26 January 2018
• “The Future of Work – New Underclass, Dystopian Reality?” (with Eugene Goh), Channel NewsAsia, 15 October 2017
• “Singapore and the Terror Threat Landscape”, IAPS Dialogue: The online magazine of the Institute of Asia & Pacific Studies, University of Nottingham, 25 September 2017
• “Memories of War and its Legacies”, National Archives of Singapore, Off the Record, 2 September 2017
• “Disinformation: An Old Security Threat Made New”, The Straits Times, 8 August 2017
• “Remembering the Legacy of Pramoedya Ananta Toer”, The Jakarta Post, 30 April 2017
• “Creating an Ecosystem to Win a Non-conventional War” (with Ho Shu Huang), TODAY, 22 March 2017
• “Beware the Slow-burn Threats to Singapore”, Channel NewsAsia, 31 December 2016
• “JI Arrests: 15 Years Later”, The Straits Times, 9 December 2016
• “Smart Nation, but Will We Be Secure?” (with Benjamin Ang), The Straits Times, 14 October 2016
• “The Four Rs Behind the Unhappiness”, The Straits Times, 6 October 2016
• “Morality and the Future of Robots”, The Straits Times, 6 June 2016
• “Islamic State “Sleeper Cells” Not the Real Fear Around Refugee Exodus”, TODAY, 6 October 2015
• “The Year of the Caliphate and What is to Come”, The Straits Times, 27 June 2015
• “The Curious Case of Wang Yuandongyi”, The Straits Times, 2 April 2015
• “What Singaporeans Should Do as Security Threats Evolve”, TODAY, 15 February 2015
• ““Reverse Jihad”: The Other Foreign Fighters”, The Straits Times, 5 November 2014