CENS Activities 2011

Associate Professor Kumar Ramakrishna (Head of CENS) Speaks at Religious Radicalization Seminar

Date: 28 March 2011
Place: Quezon City, Philippines

Associate Professor Kumar Ramakrishna (Head of CENS) was a Visiting Scholar at the Philippines Institute of Political Violence and Terrorism Research (PIPVTR), based in Quezon City, Metro Manila, from 25-29 March 2011. While he was there he presented his views on the sources of violent religious radicalization at a joint CENS-PIPVTR seminar on 28 March 2011. The seminar was well-attended by 35 participants from Philippines national security agencies, foreign embassies, academia, NGOs and graduate students. During the seminar, Lt-Gen Benjamin Dolorfino, retired senior military officer, former Commandant of the Philippine Marines and Commander of Western Mindanao Command, launched his new book on counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency in Mindanao, entitled Soldiers as Peacemakers, Peacekeepers and Peacebuilders.

Associate Professor Bilveer Singh attends Public Governance Forum

Date: 18 March 2011
Place: Taipei, Taiwan

(from left to right: Prof Singh, MG Kaushal, Prof Chang Chung Young (organizer), Prof Shen Ming Shih from National Defence University)

Associate Professor Bilveer Singh participated a meeting on Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) and Homeland Security in Taipei, Taiwan. It was part of a Public Governance Forum organised by Fo Guang University with funding from Taiwan’s Office of Homeland Security (Executive Yuan) in collaboration with the Taiwan’s National Security Council and National Defense University. The meeting was organised under Phase 2 of the project with a follow-up third phase that will see Taiwan’s introducing policies with regard to CIP and Homeland Security. Three foreign speakers were invited: Major General Rajinder Kumar Kaushal from the Indian National Disaster Management Authority, Prof Hironobu Nakabayashi from Meiji University and Associate Professor Singh himself from CENS, RSIS. He presented a paper titled ‘Resilience, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Crisis Management – A Perspective from Singapore’. He commented that it was an excellent meeting with insightful discussions on what is ‘critical’, how to protect key infrastructures and how to manage a threat of this nature, especially if it has already occurred. Through his presentation, Prof. Singh argued the importance of resilience as well as what has been put in place in Singapore as means to ‘harden’ key infrastructures and how the homefront crisis management system works.