Shei Siong Oh is a Counsellor ranked diplomat based at the Singapore Embassy in Manila, covering defence and security issues of interest.

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Irene Chan is a Singapore-based policy researcher and program manager with over a decade of experience in research coordination, policy analysis, and stakeholder engagement across China and Southeast Asia. She specializes in Chinese foreign policy, Southeast Asian geopolitics, and the regional implications of Beijing’s expanding influence.
Irene has worked with leading institutions including RSIS, Business China, and Carnegie China, where she led research initiatives, facilitated Track II dialogues, and produced policy-relevant analysis bridging academic research and strategic decision-making. Her work involves close collaboration with diplomats, scholars, and business leaders throughout the Indo-Pacific.
At the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Irene strengthens the organization’s regional engagement through research on China–Southeast Asia relations and the Belt and Road Initiative, while building partnerships with think tanks and institutions across the region.
Fluent in English and Mandarin, she combines analytical depth with extensive field experience and a commitment to advancing nuanced understanding among Canada, Southeast Asia, and China in an increasingly complex Indo-Pacific environment.

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Chong Ja Ian is an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, where he teaches and conducts research in international politics and security. Chong is a non-resident scholar at Carnegie China, Carnegie’s East Asia-based research center on contemporary China, where he examines U.S.-China dynamics in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 2008. His research covers the intersection of international and domestic politics, with a focus on the externalities of major power competition, nationalism, regional order, security, contentious politics, coercive diplomacy, and state formation.
He was a 2019-20 Harvard-Yenching Visiting Scholar, 2013 Taiwan Fellow, 2012-13 East-West Center Asia Fellow, and a 2008-9 Princeton-Harvard China and the World Fellow. Chong’s current research examines how non-leading state behavior collectively intensifies major power rivalries. He has concurrent projects investigating how states react to sanctions on third parties by trade partners, and the characteristics of foreign influence operations.
Chong is the author of External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation: China, Indonesia, Thailand, 1893-1952 (Cambridge, 2012), and a recipient of the 2013 International Security Studies Section Book Award from the International Studies Association. He has published in the China Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, International Security, Security Studies, and Pacific Affairs, among other outlets.

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Jane CHAN is a Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Maritime Security Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Her main research interests include maritime security issues in Southeast Asia, law and order at sea, regional maritime cooperation and confidence-building measures, and regional boundary delimitation and territorial disputes. She is an affiliated faculty at the Singapore Arm Forces (SAF)-NTU Academy (SNA).

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Dr Rahman Yaacob is a Research Fellow at the Southeast Asia Program, Lowy Institute. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy (KIMS). His research focuses on Southeast Asian defence policy and relations with major powers.

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Collin Koh is senior fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies which is a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, based in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has research interests on naval affairs in the Indo-Pacific, focusing on Southeast Asia. Collin has published several op-eds, policy and academic journal articles, as well as chapters for edited volumes covering his research areas. He has also taught at Singapore Armed Forces professional military education and training courses. Besides research and teaching, Collin contributes his perspectives to various local and international media outlets and participates in activities with geopolitical risk consultancies.

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