Research interests
Southeast Asian security issues, ASEAN, Indonesian defence and foreign policy, domestic political change in Indonesia

Rizal Sukma,is currently Executive Director at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS),Jakarta. He received Ph.D. degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, in 1997, and has worked extensively on Southeast Asia? Security issues, ASEAN, Indonesia? Defence and Foreign Policy, Military Reform, Islam and Politics, and Domestic Political Changes in Indonesia. He is also Chairman of International Relations, Muhammadiyah Central Executive Board; and a member of Board of Governor of the implementing agency for the Bali Democracy Forum (BDF), the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD).

He has served as a member of National Committee on Strategic Defense Review at the Ministry of Defence the Republic of Indonesia, and a member of National Drafting Committee for National Defence Bill (2000-2001) and the Armed Forces Bill (2002?003). During March-April2007, He was a Fullbright Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, New York. He is the first Indonesian to receive the Nakasone Award in July 2005. He was named as one of 100 Global Thinkers 2009 by Foreign Policy magazine (US). DR. Sukma also sits as a member of regional editorial board for Global Change, Peace and Security (a peer reviewed journal published by Routledge, London, and based in La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia); and a member of International editorial board for Studies in Asian Security, Stanford University Press and East West Center.

His Publication includes Security Operations in Aceh: Goals, Consequences, and Lessons (Washington, DC: East-West Centre, 2004); Islam in Indonesia's Foreign Policy (London: Routledge, 2003), and Indonesia and China: The Politics of a Troubled Relationship (London: Routledge, 1999). His latest article," Indonesia-China Relations:The Politics of Re-engagement," appears in Asian Survey, Vol.49, Issue No.4, July/August 2009.