ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute

(Redirected fromInstitute of Southeast Asian Studies)

TheISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute is aresearch institution andstatutory board under the purview of theMinistry of Education inSingapore. It was established by anAct of Parliament in 1968.^[1]

ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute
Institute overview
ISEAS headquarters in Singapore
Established	7 June 1968; 57 years ago (1968-06-07) (as Institute of Southeast Asian Studies)
Focus	South-east Asia
Chair	Chan Heng Chee
Key people	Choi Shing Kwok, Director & CEO Terence Chong, Deputy CEO & Director of Research Tan Tai Tiong, Director (Corporate Services)
Address	30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Singapore 119614
Coordinates	01°17′30″N103°46′36″E / 1.29167°N 103.77667°E /1.29167; 103.77667


Jurisdiction	Government of Singapore
Parent Institute	Ministry of Education

Website	ISEAS.edu.sg

Previously known as theInstitute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), the organisation was renamed as ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute on 12 August2015, in honour of Singapore's firstPresident,Yusof Ishak.^[2] The institute celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018, with Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong delivering a lecture^[3] on 13 March that year.

According to its website, the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute's primary objectives are:

To be a leading research centre dedicated to the study ofsocio-political, security, andeconomic trends and developments inSoutheast Asia and its wider geo-strategic and economic environment;
To stimulate research and debate within scholarly circles, enhance public awareness of the region, and facilitate the search for viable solutions to the varied problems confronting the region;
To nurture a community of scholars interested in the region and to engage in research on the multi-faceted dimensions and issues of stability and security, economic development, and political, social and cultural change.

The institute conducts a range of research programmes; holds conferences, workshops, lectures and seminars; publishes briefs, research journals and books; and generally provides a range of research support facilities, including a large library collection.

Research programmes

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Regional Economic Studies
Regional Strategic and Political Studies
Regional Social and Cultural Studies

Country Studies Programmes

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The country-focused programmes are meant to complement the institute's three basic disciplinary programmes, with the cross-affiliation of researchers between the two sets of programmes helping to encourage research projects which are more comparative in nature and are conceptually bolder.

The five country-specific programmes areIndonesia,Malaysia,Myanmar,Thailand, andVietnam (includingIndochina).^[4]

Research Centres

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ASEAN Studies Centre
- Established in 2008 to research on issues pertaining to the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as an institution and a process.
Singapore APEC Study Centre
- Established in 1994 to research, disseminates information, facilitates discussions on APEC-related issues, and promotes linkages with other APEC Study Centres.
Temasek History Research Centre
- Established in 2019 to research Singapore's pre-modern history, its economic and socio-cultural links to the region, as well as its historical role as a trading centre.

ISEAS Publishing

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Thepublishing arm of the institution has produced more than 2,000 titles, consisting of books andjournals, since the early 1970s.^[5] ISEAS Publishing is the largest scholarly publisher of research about south-east Asia and Asia-Pacific from within the region and works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about south-east Asia to the rest of the world. In recent years, ISEAS has published an average of 50 new titles a year. In addition, ISEAS Publishing issues the institute's three tri-annual academic journal:Journal of Southeast Asian Economies;^[6]^[7]Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia;^[8] andContemporary Southeast Asia,^[9] as well as the annualSoutheast Asian Affairs.^[10]

ISEAS books and journals are distributed to over 100 countries worldwide, and are available in both electronic and print versions, via the bookshop located within the institute, and its website.^[11]

ISEAS Library

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The library houses over half a million items related to south-east Asia in the area ofeconomics,politics,international relations,culture, andsocial studies. The collections, built up over decades, are both historical and contemporary, including a range of multimedia titles.^[12]

The ISEAS library is open to all members of the public interested in the study of the south-east Asian region.