Ang Cheng Guan is the Associate Dean of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and Deputy Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS). He specializes in the international history of contemporary Asia, with a focus on Southeast Asia. He is the author of Vietnamese Communist Relations with China and the Second Indo-China Conflict, 1956-1962 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1997), The Vietnam War from the Other Side: The Vietnamese Communists’ Perspective (London: RoutledgeCurzon), its sequel, Ending the Vietnam War: The Vietnamese Communists’ Perspective (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004); Southeast Asia and the Vietnam War (London: Routledge, 2010); Lee Kuan Yew’s Strategic Thought (London: Routledge, 2013); Singapore, ASEAN and the Cambodia Conflict, 1979-1991 (Singapore: NUS Press, 2013), Southeast Asia’s Cold War: An Interpretive History (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2018) and its sequel, Southeast Asia after the Cold War (Singapore: NUS Press, 2019); and The Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (London: Routledge, 2021). He was a Gerald R. Ford Foundation Research Grant Award recipient (Fall 2005), Fulbright Singapore Researcher award recipient (2006-2007), and a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Scholar (2006-2007). His latest book is Singapore’s Grand Strategy (Singapore: Nus Press, 2023).
Vimal Khawas is Professor in the Special Centre for the Study of North East India at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Previously, he was Associate Professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies and Management, Sikkim University. He headed the department in 2018-20. He holds an MPlan degree (Urban and Regional Planning) from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and PhD (Political Geography) from the Political Geography Division, Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament (CIPOD), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His PhD focuses on the Environmental Security issues and challenges of the Himalaya. He specializes and works around issues of regional development & planning, disaster management, and environmental security. Some of his journal articles are: “Earthquake Disaster and Vernacular Construction: Experiences from the Sikkim Himalayan Earthquake, 2011,” with Pribat Rai, Journal of Development Management and Communication 2.2: (April-June); “Environmental Challenges and Issues of Human Security in Eastern Nepal,” The Himalayan Miscellany, Volume 24 (2014); and “The Project of Gorkhaland,” Social Change 39.3 (2009).
Asad Latif is an editorial writer for The Straits Times, Singapore. He is the Co-General Editor of the 50-volume Singapore Chronicles series, and the author of several books, including Between Rising Powers: China, Singapore and India (2007), Three Sides in Search of a Triangle: Singapore-America-India Relations (2008), India in the Making of Singapore (2008), and Lim Kim San: A Builder of Singapore (2009). He graduated with Honours in English from Presidency College in Kolkata, was a Chevening Scholar in History at Cambridge, and was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard. He served on the editorial committee of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs and was a member of the president’s committee of the Cambridge Union Society, the university debating club. His columns and reviews have been published in the Rising Asia Journal.
Tian Mashuang is a PhD student in the Department of History, School of Humanities at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He received interdisciplinary academic training in International Relations, Chinese History, and Asian Studies at Peking University, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Tsinghua University. His research experience covers social sciences, international relations, history, area studies, and Chinese history. Currently, Tian Mashuang is conducting PhD research on the Global History of tea, and the “Silk Road” of the Tea Plant across Asia and Africa. The research focuses on the historical and commercial studies of tea, the geographical and industrial connections of tea cultivation, and geographical branding of tea products. The study tells how the tea plant connects the world with universalism and cosmopolitanism. His articles have appeared in English and Chinese journals, such as the Rising Asia Journal, Xinrui Weekly, China Public Administration Review, Henan Social Sciences, and Southeast Asia and South Asia Studies.
Man Norbu is Assistant Professor and Assistant Director in the School of Internal Security Defence and Strategic Studies, Rashtriya Raksha University in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. He completed his BA (Hons), MA, MPhil, and PhD in Political Science at Rajiv Gandhi University in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. A topper in the Department of Political Science in MA and MPhil, his areas of research include India-China relations and Tibet, and India’s security challenges in North East India, particularly Arunachal Pradesh. His MPhil Dissertation is on “People’s Perception on Sino-India War of 1962: A Study of Tawang District of Arunachal Pradesh,” and his PhD Thesis is concerned with the administrative system in Tawang and West Kameng region during the Tibetan administration. His publications include a book chapter “Tibet’s Relation with Tawang: A Factor for Chinese Claim and People’s Perception on it,” and journal articles such as “Tawang under Tibetan Administration: A Historical Perspective,” “India’s Security Challenges in North East India,” and others.
Ajay Kumar Pandey is a PhD scholar in the Department of Political Science at Rajiv Gandhi University in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. His research focuses on “Women Empowerment and Self-Help Groups: A Study of Papum Pare and Namsai District of Arunachal Pradesh.” In 2019, he successfully completed his MA degree with first-class honors, followed by the attainment of his MPhil with similar distinction in 2021. He has published book chapters published in ISBN books, such as “Lockdown and its Impact on Indian Society from a Multidimensional Perspective,” “Corruption and Probity in Public Life: Role, Relevance, and Prospects of Pressure Groups with a Special Reference to APPSC Paper Leakage,” and “Reducing Gender Disparity through the Promotion of Women’s Political Participation: A Case Study of Self-Help Groups in Tezu Block, Lohit District, Arunachal Pradesh.” He has also published in peer-reviewed journals articles such as “Understanding the Changing Narratives on Child Rights,” and “The Role of Self-Help Groups in the Political Empowerment of Women: A Study of Lohit District, Arunachal Pradesh.”
Manjeet S. Pardesi is Associate Professor of International Relations in the Political Science and International Relations Programme, and Asia Research Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. His research interests include Historical International Relations, Great Power Politics, Asian security, and the Sino-Indian rivalry. He is the co-author of The Sino-Indian Rivalry: Implications for Global Order (with Sumit Ganguly and William R. Thompson, Cambridge University Press, 2023). He is currently working on a book project tentatively titled Worlds in Contrast: Hegemonic and Multiplex Orders in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean (with Amitav Acharya). He is the Managing Editor of the journal Asian Security (since June 2018).
Vinod Kumar Pillai is an independent scholar with an interest in literary fiction, development studies, popular science and short-story writing. He has published book reviews in the Rising Asia Journal (www.rajraf.org) on topics related to the literatures and politics of Southeast Asia, and is a reader for the Bengal Club Book Club. He holds a graduate degree in Agricultural Sciences, and worked for over thirty years in banking, specializing in behavioural science and counseling. Besides literary fiction, development studies, popular science and training, he also devotes time to podcasting and stock photography.
Salikyu Sangtam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Tetso College in Dimapur, India. He teaches international relations theory (IRT) and political theory. His research focuses on Chinese thought, and non-western IRT and political theory. He has published papers (“ ‘All-Under-Heaven’ is Timeless: An Anthropology of Chinese Strategic Behavior” in Rising Asia Journal), and reviews books regularly for the journal. He has presented papers on Chinese strategic thought in international conferences, and has served as a resource person on numerous invited occasions delivering lectures (on political psychology, Indian Constitution, Ambedkar, Tourism, and non-western political theory) and in academic workshops. He was also invited to serve as a panelist on “Nagaland Special Development Zone” at the Business Summit at Nagaland International Trade Expo (NITEX) in November 2017.
Gurjit Singh retired as the Indian ambassador to Germany. A 1980 batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service, he has served as ambassador to Indonesia, ASEAN, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. He is an Honorary Professor of International Relations Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Indore. He holds a Bachelors’ degree in politics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and a post-graduate degree from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Ambassador Singh has authored five books, The Abalone Factor on India-Japan business relations; The Injera and the Paratha on India and Ethiopia; Masala Bumbu and a comic book, Travels through Time, both on the India-Indonesia relationship; and Opportunity Beckons: Adding Momentum to the Indo-German Partnership. The Harambee Factor, on India and Africa development cooperation, was released in 2022. He is the Consulting Editor of Rising Asia Journal and a member of the Rising Asia Foundation’s advisory board.
Toh Han Shih holds a B.S. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in Physics from Oxford University. He also has a Master’s in Southeast Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and has completed a part-time Master’s in Economics at Hong Kong University. Han Shih is a Singapore-born writer resident in Hong Kong with twenty years of experience reporting on business and economics related to China, including ten years as a reporter with the South China Morning Post. In December 2016, he published the book, Is China an Empire? From 2007 to 2008, he worked at Kroll, and in the late 1990s, he was a reporter at the Business Times in Singapore. He was also a senior correspondent of MLEX, a regulatory risk news agency, and senior reporter of Finance Asia, a financial trade publication. He is currently chief analyst of Headland Intelligence, a Hong Kong risk consultancy.
Bich Tran is a postdoctoral fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. In addition to being an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC, she has been a visiting fellow at the East West Center, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS-Asia), and ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute among others. Dr. Tran obtained her PhD in Political Science from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Her research interests include Vietnam’s grand strategy, Southeast Asian states’ relations with major powers, and political leadership. She has published on various platforms, including Asia Pacific Issues, Asian Perspective, Asian Politics & Policy, The Diplomat, East Asia Forum, and Fulcrum. Dr. Tran is the author of “Vietnam’s Strategic Adjustments and US Policy” (Survival 64, no. 6, 77–90).
Trần Ứng Thuỳ Trang is a junior year student at Fulbright University Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She is pursuing a double degree in Arts & Media Studies and Literature. First influenced by cable-channel film-focused programs and digital-based video essays in high school, she became curious about how films affect our interaction with political and societal issues. After entering college, she became interested in the dynamic relationships between national cinema, literature, and politics in Vietnam and East Asia. Her research experience covers arts and media studies and literary studies. She has taken part in Fulbright’s Summer Showcase program as a podcast director, sharing the artistic voice of faculty and students with the broader community of her university.
Punyo Yarang has been a dedicated educator in the field of Political Science at the Department of Political Science, Rajiv Gandhi University in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, since 2008. Her educational journey began in a humble village school, Hong Middle School in Ziro, Lower Subansiri, Arunachal Pradesh, in 1988. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Dera Natung Government College, Itanagar, and went on to complete her postgraduate, MPhil, and PhD degrees at Rajiv Gandhi University. Her research interests primarily revolve around critical topics such as women’s rights, child rights, governance, and policy studies. Some of her notable research publications include “Agriculture Labor Management System in Apatani,” “Apatani Women in Contemporary Society: A Reality or Myth,” “Working of Indigenous Governing Institutions: A Study on the Apatani Tribe,” “Emergence of Urban Centres and Urban Local Bodies in the Frontier State: A Study of Itanagar Municipal Corporation,” and “Ritual, Altar, and Taboo as Instruments of Social Control: A Study on the Apatani Tribe.”
