To stimulate research and debate within scholarly circles, enhance public awareness of the region, and facilitate the search for viable solutions to the varied problems confronting the region.
To nurture a community of scholars interested in the region and to engage in research on the multi-faceted dimensions and issues of stability and security, economic development, and political, social and cultural change.
The institute conducts a range of research programmes; holds conferences, workshops, lectures and seminars; publishes briefs, research journals and books; and generally provides a range of research support facilities, including a large library collection.
The country-focused programmes are meant to complement the institute’s three basic disciplinary programmes, with the cross-affiliation of researchers between the two sets of programmes helping to encourage research projects which are more comparative in nature and are conceptually bolder. The five country-specific programmes are Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
*Established in 1994 to research, disseminates information, facilitates discussions on APEC-related issues, and promotes linkages with other APEC Study Centres.
*Established in 2019 to research Singapore’s premodern history, its economic and socio-cultural links to the region, as well as its historical role as a trading centre.
ISEAS Publishing
The publishing arm of the institution has produced more than 2,000 titles, consisting of books and journals, since the early 1970s. ISEAS Publishing is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific from within the region and works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world. In recent years, ISEAS has published an average of 50 new titles a year. In addition, ISEAS Publishing issues the institute's three tri-annual academic journals - Journal of Southeast Asian Economies; SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia; and Contemporary Southeast Asia, as well as the annual Southeast Asian Affairs. ISEAS books and journals are distributed to over 100 countries worldwide and are available in both electronic and print versions, via the bookshop located within the institute and its website.
ISEAS Library
The library houses over half a million items related to Southeast Asia in the area of economics, politics, international relations, culture and social studies. The collections, built up over decades, are both historical and contemporary, including a range of multimedia titles. The ISEAS library is open to all members of the public interested in the study of the Southeast Asian region.
