Thomas D•••

About

On the record

As a Senior Fellow with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia’s national think tank, I lead the Foreign Policy & Security Studies team. I manage both commissioned and institutional research and outputs. These include confidential briefs, research, policy documents, recommendations and speeches for the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and senior officials from the foreign and defence ministries. I also coordinate the convening of bilateral and trilateral dialogue processes with partner/networks institutes, and ISIS Malaysia’s signature annual event – the Asia-Pacific Roundtable 9APR). In its 36th year, the APR remains one of the region’s leading strategic-security Track II conference.My key research areas are:(i) the impact of major power relations on Southeast Asia’s strategic/security policy considerations, including the South China Sea dispute,(ii) Malaysian foreign & defence policies & Malaysian policies on refugees & asylum seekers, including the impact of the Rohingya/Rakhine Crisis on Malaysia. I speak both domestically and regionally on these issues and have been quoted and interviewed in local and international media, including the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, the Jakarta Post and Channel News Asia. Some of my work is available: & on Twitter at @tbd101