INSTITUTE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES IN SINGAPORE

Soon after Singapore became independent in 1965, there was
concern among the Singapore authorities that, though it occupied
a key strategic location in the region, their country possessed
only limited knowledge of its Southeast Asian neighbours and that
this situation should not be allowed to continue.
Subsequently the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies was
established by an Act of Parliament in May 1968 as an independent
regional research organization. Its interests are primarily
modern Southeast Asia, particularly the problems of stability and
security, economic development, and political and social change.

KERNIAL SANDHU
As stated in the Act, the Institute is governed by a twenty-two
member Board of Trustees, comprising nominees from the Singapore
government, the National University of Singapore, the various
Chambers of Commerce, and professional and civic organizations.
A ten-man Executive Committee oversees day-to-day operation; it
is chaired by the Director, the Institute's chief academic and
administrative officer. The first director was Harry Benda, an
American scholar who was an Indonesian specialist. The second
director was John Legge of Australia, who was also an Indonesian
specialist. He was succeeded by Joseph Silverstein, an American
who is a Burmese specialist. However, the rapid development of
the Institute was under the directorship of Kernial Sandhu, a
Malaysian Indian who later became a Singaporean. Sandhu was the
first Southeast Asian scholar who occupied the position, and was
also the director who served the longest period - from 1972 until
his demise in 1992. The present director is Chan Heng Chee, a
woman political scientist in Singapore.
The institute saw rapid development in the 1970s and 1980s under
Sandhu. He was instrumental in attracting funding sources for
ISEAS research projects.

FOCUS OF ISEAS
The Institute initially focused on social sciences, later
expanding to include economic and strategic studies. Its
publications reflect the Institute's various interests.
'Southeast Asian Affairs'is an annual which surveys political and
economic development of Southeast Asia; 'ASEAN Economic
Bulletin', issued three times a year, focuses on economic
studies; 'Contemporary Southeast Asia' is a quarterly on
international politics; and 'Sojourn' is an ethnicity journal
published biannually. In addition, ISEAS has also published 600
books, monographs and occasional papers. There is no doubt that
it has become one of the leading academic publishers in the
region.
As a research institute, ISEAS now attracts an average of 16
Fellows and Senior Fellows, in addition to 42 research Fellows,
6 Research Associates, 44 Visiting Fellows and 29 Visiting
Associates every year, or an average of 137 core and short-term
specialists from all over the world annually.
ISEAS organizes workshops, seminars and conferences, its library
has the largest collection of materials on ASEAN in the world.