Rizal Sukma is Indonesian Ambassador to the United Kingdom and International Maritime Organization and former Executive Director of CSIS also member of the Board of Advisors of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD). Since receiving a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1997, he has worked extensively on such issues as Southeast Asian security, ASEAN, Indonesia’s defence and foreign policy, military reform, Islam and politics, and domestic political changes in Indonesia.
Dr Sukma has served as a member of the National Committee on Strategic Defence Review at the Ministry of Defence, and as a member of the National Drafting Committee for the National Defence Bill (2000–2002) and the Armed Forces Bill (2002–2003). He was the first Indonesian to receive the Nakasone Award, in July 2005, and named one 100 Global Thinkers in 2009 by Foreign Policy magazine. His many publications include, most recently, “The ASEAN Political and Security Community (APSC): Opportunities and Constraints for the R2P in Southeast Asia”, appears in The Pacific Review, Vol. 25, No. 1 (March 2012), and “Indonesia Finds a New Voice,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 22, No. 4, (October 2011).
He has also published three books: 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).
