Dr Rizal Sukma is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta, and the Executive Director at the Centre for East Asian Studies, Prasetiya Mulya University in Jakarta.

Previously, he was Indonesia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ireland and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), London, from 2016 to 2020. He joined CSIS in 1990 as a researcher and assumed the role of Executive Director in 2009 until 2015. Since January 2025, Dr Sukma also serves as the Executive Chair of Indonesia’s National Commission for UNESCO. Since receiving a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1997, he has worked extensively on such issues as Southeast Asian security, ASEAN, Indonesia’s defense and foreign policy, military reform, Islam and politics, and domestic political changes in Indonesia.

Dr Sukma has served as a member of the National Committee on Strategic Defence Review at the Ministry of Defence, and as a member of the National Drafting Committee for the National Defence Bill (2000–2002) and the Armed Forces Bill (2002–2003). He was the first Indonesian to receive the Nakasone Award, in July 2005, and named one of the 100 Global Thinkers in 2009 by Foreign Policy magazine. In April 2024, he is also elected as a member of the International IDEA Advisory Board for 2024-2027.

He has published three books: Security Operations in Aceh: Goals, Consequences, and Lessons (Washington, DC: East-West Centre, 2004); Islam in Indonesia’s Foreign Policy (London: Routledge, 2003), and Indonesia and China: The Politics of A Troubled Relationship (London: Routledge, 1999).