Forward Engagement: RSIS as a Think Tank of International Studies and Security in the Asia Pacific

23 December 2016

Forward Engagement: RSIS as a Think Tank of International Studies and Security in the Asia Pacific

SINGAPORE — The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) will be launching a book Forward Engagement: RSIS as a Think Tank of International Studies and Security in the Asia Pacific on 28 December 2016. The Guest-of-Honour at this Book Launch is Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore; and Secretary-General, National Trades Union Congress.

RSIS serves the national and international security interests of Singapore by acting as a renewable repository of ideas for its political leaders, while also hosting diplomacy through informal channels and teaching four Masters programmes.

In celebrating RSIS’ 20th anniversary, this book shows how this threefold mission is carried out in never before revealed detail.

Featuring contributions by 23 of its leading academics and appointment holders (see attached), including its current head, Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, there are plenty of first hand recollections of how the School contributed to the steering of Asia Pacific security networks and building informal channels for dialogue between governments, academia and security agencies across the Asia Pacific. Managing national and international security for Singapore is not an abstract exercise relegated to books and the corridors of government as this book shows.

The campaign to thwart terrorism, for instance, involved exercising the clout of convening experts, active homeland security personnel from many nations and offering a neutral venue for exchanging good ideas for reinforcing border protection and de-radicalisation efforts. On the hot button topics of ASEAN’s diplomacy and the South China Sea issue, the School has played a deliberately understated role in offering a forum for communication of antagonistic viewpoints while serving as a venue for keeping dialogue open on the issue. The venerable institution of the RSIS Commentary is now a standard forum for taking the pulse of Asia Pacific security matters. There are also insights into how the RSIS staff are actively working with the Singapore Armed Forces in fostering military-to-military ties and enhancing professional military education in Singapore. In living up to the School’s motto, “Ponder the Improbable”, experts at RSIS have also begun exploring the implications of cyber security for Singapore and the ‘threats’ posed by non-traditional security issues to Asia of the likes of pandemics, food supply disruptions, humanitarian disasters and climate change related insecurities.

If anyone ever wanted answers to the question of how Singapore contributes to the security of the Asia Pacific and the world through “brain power” and “soft power”, rather than hard power, this book tells you why and how!