ASEAN needs to be an effective and central player in the region, and further deepen mutual understanding amongst members so as to socialise ourselves to think regionally, and not just nationally. ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute has a role to play in this by continuing to produce excellent research on Southeast Asia to enrich our collective knowledge and shape mindsets. This was the core message of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s lecture commemorating the institute’s 50th anniversary held at Orchard Hotel on 13 March 2018.
Professor Emmanuelle Sinardet (Paris Nanterre University) presented the first seminar of the year, with a paper titled “Reflections on the Spanish Conquest and its Representation in the Philippines: El Pacto de Sangre (1886, The Blood Compact) by Juan Luna (1857-1899)”.
ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute held the Outreach Programme for University Students (OPUS) Lecture Series with Niigata University, now in its 11th year.
The workshop brought together more than 80 thought leaders and policymakers from Singapore and around the region to share and discuss the current and future of ageing in East and Southeast Asia. Four areas were addressed: institutional-residential care, community-based care, education and training for care-givers, and active ageing.
With some 3.7 million people, a large and diversified economy, well-developed infrastructure, and occupying a strategic location, Johor is a key state in Malaysia. Its proximity, deep production linkages, and extensive labour-power mean that it is also of importance to Singapore.
ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute kicked off its 50th anniversary celebrations with a Public Lecture by Prof Leonard Y Andaya entitled “Developments in the Scholarship on Southeast Asia”.
On 6 February 2018, Mr Joergen Oerstroem Moeller, Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS; Adjunct Professor at the Singapore Management University & Copenhagen Business School and the 13th Honorary Alumni of University of Copenhagen; and Senior Fellow at the MFA Diplomatic Academy, delivered a presentation on “Oil, LNG, and Fracking Defines a New Power Game: US Main Exporter, China and India Main Importers, New Alliances in the Middle East”.
Dr Lesley S Pullen, Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Art History at SOAS University of London, delivered the year’s first NSC lecture at ISEAS titled, “Classical Javanese Figurative Sculpture: Examining ornament and style”.
The ASEAN Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore welcomed Hon. Enrique A. Manalo, Undersecretary for Policy at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of the Philippines, to share his views on the highlights of the Philippines’ Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2017.
Dr Michael Green, Senior Vice-President of CSIS in Washington DC and former Asia Director in President George W Bush’s National Security Council gave a seminar at ISEAS on 8 January on ‘’US Policies to East/Southeast Asia: How much continuity, how much retreat?’’