S. Rajaratnam Professorship in Strategic Studies

S. Rajaratnam Collection, Courtesy of ISEAS Library, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore

The S. Rajaratnam Professorship in Strategic Studies at RSIS was inaugurated on 31 August 1998 to enable the School to invite distinguished scholars in strategic studies and related fields to participate in its activities. The professorship was established in honour of Mr Sinnathamby Rajaratnam for his distinguished services to the nation.

Mr Rajaratnam, born in 1915, was elected Member of Parliament for Kampung Glam in 1959 and continued to represent the constituency until his retirement in 1988. He became the Minister for Culture in 1959, the Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1965 and in the latter capacity, he took on a second portfolio as the Minister for Labour from 1968 to 1971. He became Second Deputy Prime Minister (Foreign Affairs) in 1980, after which he was appointed Senior Minister until his retirement. He passed away in 2006.

The S. Rajaratnam Professorship in Strategic Studies is made possible by a S$2.6 million fund (excluding a matching grant from the Singapore Government) raised by the Fund Raising Committee chaired by Mr S. Chandra Das, Member of Parliament for Cheng San Group Representative Constituency from 1980 to 1996. Income generated from the invested endowment funds is used to invite internationally renowned scholars to teach and to research at the School. The S. Rajaratnam Professorship thus enables RSIS to increase its international linkages as well as benefit from the knowledge, experience and wisdom of eminent scholars appointed to the chair.

The Endowed Professorships at RSIS are detailed HERE.

The scholars who held this Chair previously are listed below, and their talks are accessible at the link given.

Professor M. Taylor Fravel, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of the Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 15 to 27 August 2024

Dr Kitaoka Shinichi, Emeritus Professor, University of Tokyo and Emeritus Professor, Rikkyo University, 11 to 20 March 2024

Professor Dominic Johnson, Alastair Buchan Professor of International Relations and Fellow, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, 19 to 31 August 2023

Professor John Esposito, University Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies, Georgetown University, 7 to 16 July 2019

Ambassador Su Ge, Co-Chair, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), and Chairman, China National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation (CNCPEC), 22 September to 8 October 2018

Dr Richard Bush, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, and Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, The Brookings Institution, 30 October to 20 November 2017

Dr Olli Heinonen, Senior Associate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, The Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Senior Advisor on Science and Nonproliferation, Foundation for Defense on Democracies, Washington D.C., 22 October to 5 November 2016

Dr Kent Calder, Director, Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, 3 to 15 January 2016

Professor Stephen Rosen, Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs at Harvard University, and Senior Counselor at the Long Term Strategy Group, from 12 to 23 January 2015

Professor Andrew Hurrell, Montague Burton Professor of International Relations and Fellow of Balliol College, University of Oxford, from 3 to 18 January 2014

Professor Hugh White, Professor of Strategic Studies, Head of Strategic and Defence Studies, Australian National University, from 13 to 27 February 2013

Professor Peter D. Feaver, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Duke University, United States, from 21 July to 3 August 2011

Professor Eliot Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, from 1 to 15 August 2010

Professor Peter Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, at the Department of Government, Cornell University, from 1 to 15 January 2010

Professor Bruce Hoffman, Professor, Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, from 27 July to 12 August 2009

Professor Neil MacFarlane, Lester B. Pearson Professor of International Relations and Head of Department, Department of Politics and International Relations, and Fellow, St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, from 27 July to 16 August 2008

Professor Richard K. Betts, Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, from 1 to 22 August 2007

Professor Rosemary Foot, Professor of International Relations and the John Swire Senior Research Fellow at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, from 2 August to 15 November 2006

Professor C. Raja Mohan, Professor of South Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in August 2005

Professor John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor and Co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, in August 2004

Professor Alastair Iain Johnston, the Governor James Albert Noe and Linda Noe Laine Professor of China in World Affairs in the Government Department at Harvard University, from 24 February to 24 August 2003

Professor Wang Jisi, Director of the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on 21 to 25 February and on 2 to 8 March 2002

Professor Jack L. Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, from July to August 2001

Professor Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in January 2000

Note: Lectures from 2011 are available for viewing. Click on links above to watch the videos.

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