The ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute is a

research institution A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

and statutory board under the purview of the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. It was established by an Act of Parliament in 1968. Previously known as the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, the organisation was renamed as ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute on 12 August

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, in honour of Singapore's first

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

, Yusof Ishak. The institute celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018, with Prime Minister

Lee Hsien Loong Lee Hsien Loong (born 10 February 1952) is a Singaporean politician and former military officer who served as the third Prime Minister of Singapore, prime minister of Singapore from 2004 to 2024, thereafter serving as a Senior Minister of S ...

delivering a lecture 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 of

socio-political Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how ...

, security, and economic trends and developments in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

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

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

Country Studies Programmes

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 are

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

(including

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

Research Centres

*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

The

publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

arm of the institution has produced more than 2,000 titles, consisting of books and journals, since the early 1970s. 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''; ''Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia''; and ''Contemporary Southeast Asia'', as well as the annual ''Southeast Asian Affairs''. 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.

ISEAS Library

The library houses over half a million items related to south-east Asia in the area of

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, and

social studies In many countries' curricula, social studies is the combined study of humanities, the arts, and social sciences, mainly including history, economics, and civics. The term was coined by American educators around the turn of the twentieth century as ...

. The collections, built up over decades, are both historical and contemporary, including a range of multimedia titles. The ISEAS library is open to all members of the public interested in the study of the south-east Asian region.

References

External links

ISEAS.edu.sg
— official website *
ISEAS contact details
{{Authority control 1968 establishments in Singapore Statutory boards of the Singapore Government Southeast Asian studies Think tanks based in Singapore Organizations established in 1968