Others

Mr Kalicharan Veera Singam Research Analyst

“This research aims to study the political underpinnings in the scepticism over anthropogenic climate change among the masses. The paper uses data on climate change perceptions and electoral behaviour in the United States to show that scepticism over climate change and the increasing rigour with which the anti-scientific position is defended result from the continued politicisation of the issue. The research offers institutionalised conspiracism and ideological packaging to show that views on climate change are influenced by sceptics’ unassailable views on other issues and are normalised through conformity in a binary partisan political context.”

• Theme: Non-Traditional Security
• Region: Americas/ Global

Ang Cheng Guan Associate Professor and Head of Graduate Studies

“This is an attempt to revisit the history of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation from its formation to its demise in 1977. The majority of writings on SEATO were published between the 1950s and 1980s. There is only one single-authored study of SEATO (published in 1983) which covers the complete life cycle of the organisation. A new study of SEATO was published in 2012 after a long hiatus. However, this account focuses mainly on developments up to 1965. My monograph/ two-year book project will fill a gap in the
historiography of the international history and politics of Southeast Asia during the Cold War years. Now that we have the primary/declassified archival sources, then not available to the authors writing in the earlier decades, it is perhaps worth revisiting the organisation for a better understanding of it.”

• Theme: General
• Region: Southeast Asia and ASEAN

Dr James M. Dorsey Senior Fellow

“Buried in the Gulf crisis is a major development likely to reshape international relations as well as power dynamics in the Middle East. The coming out of small states capable of punching far above their weight with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, a driver of the crisis, locked into an epic struggle to rewrite the region’s political map.”

• Theme: General / Conflict and Stability / Country and Region Studies /
  International Political Economy / International Politics and Security / Terrorism Studies
• Region: Southeast Asia and ASEAN / Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Dr James M. Dorsey Senior Fellow

“Saudi Arabia’s Wrecking Ball is an in-depth look at the devastating impact of Saudi Arabia’s ability to weave Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism into the fabric of key Pakistani institutions, including its military, intelligence apparatus, and ministries of religious affairs, education and interior; and significant segments of its society. This book will tell the story of Saudi penetration of Pakistan since the 1950s and how successive Pakistani leaders abetted and aided the kingdom’s effort. It is also the tale of a successful Saudi effort to put Sunni Muslim ultra conservatism on the world map. This is in a bid to foster anti-Shiite and anti-Iranian sentiment at the cost of increased sectarianism that threatens the social fabric of societies and fosters intolerance towards minorities and anti-Western sentiment, and creates environments that are potential breeding grounds for extremism and violence.”

• Theme: Conflict and Stability / Country and Region Studies / International Politics and Security / Terrorism Studies / Religion in Contemporary Society
• Region: Central Asia / South Asia / Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Mr Han Fook Kwang Senior Fellow

“This research will explore issues arising out of Singapore’s search for its identity. It will discuss what constitutes the Singapore identity, how has it changed, if any, what accounts for the change, why did the change occur, and what are the implications for the future.

Singapore’s search for identity is not taking place in isolation but against a global backdrop where issues of identity are coming to the fore. In Europe and the U.S., there has been a resurgence of public sentiment towards stronger national identities. Brexit and the election of President Donald Trump in the U.S. were examples of this, as is the rising strength of nationalistic, right wing parties in Europe.

The research will discuss Singapore’s identity in this global context. It will also explore the issue of identity in the following areas: (i) economic identity; (ii) cultural identity; (iii) political/social identity; and (iv) international identity.”

• Theme: General / International Political Economy
• Region: Global / Southeast Asia

Dr Christopher Lim Senior Fellow

Studies would include:

a) how the development of science & technology could change the economic future and security of any country and/or region;

b) strategies and/or initiatives of a country and/or a region could alter the economic future and security of another country and/or region;

c) exploration on the potential usage of biomimicry concept on how science, technology and economic could auto-feed and change the dynamics and characteristics of each other.

• Theme: General
• Region: Global

Dr Ang Cheng Guan Associate Professor and Head of Graduate Studies

This is the sequel to the earlier study (Southeast Asia and the Cold War). This book will take stock of how Southeast Asia has evolved since 1990, the changes and continuities from a contemporary international history/politics perspective. It is targeted for publication in 2019-2020, a befitting time for reflection and also for looking ahead.

• Theme: General / Conflict and Stability / Country and Region Studies / International Political Economy / International Politics and Security / Regionalism and Multilateralism
• Region: East Asia and Asia Pacific / Southeast Asia and ASEAN

Mr Yang Razali Kassim Senior Fellow

To review the prospects for the Malaysian opposition, following the second incarceration of Anwar Ibrahim, and the “reinvention” of Mahathir as a de facto oppositionist leader. This paper will  include the broader implications on Malaysian politics as a whole, taking into account whether the Malaysian opposition will evolve or remake itself in unexpected ways.

• Theme: General / Conflict and Stability / Country and Region Studies
• Region: Southeast Asia and ASEAN / East Asia and Pacific / Global

Dr James M. Dorsey Senior Fellow

Tension between Middle Eastern regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran are likely to intensify sectarian strains in countries that are home to both Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities. At the heart of the battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a four decade-old existential battle for dominance not only in the Middle East and North Africa but in the Muslim world as a whole. It is a battle that started with the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. Concerned that the Iranian revolution would offer a form of Islamic governance involving a degree of popular sovereignty that would challenge Saudi Arabia’s absolute monarchy which cloaks itself in a puritan interpretation of Islam, the kingdom went on the warpath. In doing so, it turned Wahhabi proselytisation into the single largest dedicated public diplomacy campaign in World War Two history, spending up to $100 billion since 1979 on the funding of Muslim cultural institutions across the globe and forging close ties to non-Wahhabi Muslim leaders and intelligence agencies.

• Theme: General / Conflict and Stability / Country and Region Studies
• Region: Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Mr Kalicharan Veera Singam Research Analyst

“The on-going battles and contestation of ideologies in parts of the Middle East and Asia are not just between the Islamic State and counter- terrorism forces. There are secondary and less conspicuous battles that have been ragging between militant groups of the Islamic State and various secessionist movements that are predominantly Muslim and have long been active in their “homeland” regions. The need for a research that explores the relationship between these two disparate sets of non-state actors stems from their overlapping conflict zones and increasing interactions.

This research work, intended to be published in the form of a Journal Article, aims to study the fratricides, contestation of ideas, truces, collusions and other interactions between Islamic State groups and secessionist movements. It would also seek to find out if the ideology of the Islamic State can infiltrate into the ideology of secessionist groups, enabling the two to find a common cause.”

• Theme: International Politics and Security / Terrorism Studies
• Region: South Asia / Southeast Asia and ASEAN / Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Mr Chris Cheang Senior Fellow

“Overall, the book will touch on my life and work in Russia between 1994 and 2013. It will cover the major events there and my assessment of them then, my personal experience of life there, its relationship to the state of the country, as well as the development of our bilateral relations.”

• Theme: General
• Region: Europe

Dr Farish (Badrol Hisham) Ahmad-Noor Associate Professor and Coordinator of PhD Programme

“This book project is scheduled to be published by Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam in 2018. The work looks at America’s early contact with Southeast Asia prior to the American invasion and conquest of the Philippines, and focuses on how America’s early contact with Southeast Asia framed and shaped what could be called ‘American Orientalism’.”

• Theme: Country and Region Studies
• Region: Southeast Asia and ASEAN / Americas

Dr Mohamed Nawab bin Osman Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Malaysia Programme
Ms Iulia Lumina Research Analyst
Mr Prashant Waikar Research Analyst

The RSIS Seminar Series on Muslim Societies in Asia was launched at the beginning of the year with the aim of analysing the current challenges facing Muslim societies and grounding the debates of reform and transnational movements in Asian contexts. The issues explored in the series vary from the implementation of Islamic law in Southeast Asia, the dynamics of politics, religion and security in Bangladesh, the aspirations of the Islamic State and the rise of Islamo-democrats in Central Asia, to Islamic education and the role of Muslim institutions in building inter-faith relations and religious diversity and the state of Muslim minorities in Myanmar and Cambodia. The series has covered a number of country-based cases from Brunei to Kazakhstan. The upcoming seminars include a focus on Salafism, the conflicts in Southern Thailand and Southern Philippines, the intersection of religious identity and intolerance in South India and the effects of state authority on Muslim Uyghurs in China.

• Theme: Religion in Contemporary Society
• Region: Central Asia / East Asia and Asia Pacific / South Asia / Southeast Asia and ASEAN