Kumar Ramakrishna: ISIS in Southeast Asia

Talking Terror

Dr. Kumar Ramakrishna is a tenured Associate Professor and Head Policy Studies, as well as Coordinator of the National Security Studies Programme, in the Office of the Executive Deputy Chairman, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). Prior to this appointment he was Head, Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) in RSIS (2006-2015). He co-edited The New Terrorism: Anatomy, Trends and Counter-Strategies (2002) as well as After Bali: The Threat of Terrorism in Southeast Asia (2004). His first single-authored book, Emergency Propaganda: The Winning of Malayan Hearts and Minds, 1948-1958 (2002) was described by the International History Review as “required reading for historians of Malaya, and for those whose task is to counter insurgents, guerrillas, and-terrorists”. His most recent book, Radical Pathways: Understanding Muslim Radicalization in Indonesia (2009) was identified by Perspectives on Terrorism in May 2012 as one of the top 150 books on terrorism and counter-terrorism as well as “an important and insightful case study on the pathways to extremism and violent jihad in Indonesia”. His two most recent books are Islamist Terrorism and Militancy in Indonesia: The Power of the Manichean Mindset (2015), Original Sin? Revising the Revisionist Critique of the 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore (2015) and Singapore Chronicles: Emergency (2016). He has served as a member of the Singapore Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) Resource Panel on Home Affairs and Law; the Board of Trustees, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, the Board of Governors of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) Academy, and the Executive Committee of the Political Science Association (Singapore). Research that has influenced Kumar's career Walter Reich (1998) Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind Mark Juergensmeyer (2000) Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence James Waller (2005), Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing Some of Kumar's key research Radical Pathways: Understanding Muslim Radicalization in Indonesia (2009). The Growth of ISIS Extremism in Southeast Asia: Its Ideological and Cognitive Features – AndPossible Policy Responses (2017). Understanding Youth Radicalization in the Age of ISIS: A Psychosocial Analysis (2016).