Singapore International Foundation

28 Jan 2010

Prominent Russian academic seeks exchange programmes between Russian and Singaporean schools

Visits - SIF Distinguished Visitors | Areas of work:

SIF’s distinguished visitor Sergey Karaganov will meet officials and students of NUS and SMU, and give a public lecture on geoeconomics at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Singapore, 28 January 2010… Ranked among the world’s top 100 public intellectuals in 2005 by Foreign Policy (USA) and The Prospect (UK), Dr Sergey Karaganov will be here to explore establishing links between universities in Singapore and Russia.

The well-known Russian academic will be in Singapore from 1 to 5 February under the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) Distinguished Visitors Programme (DVP).

Dr Karaganov, a political scientist, is currently Dean of the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs of the State University – Higher School of Economics (SU-HSE) in Russia.

During his visit, Dr Karaganov will meet with the Singapore Management University (SMU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) to explore possibilities for exchange.

He will also call on Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang, and meet with experts on local energy and water issues as well as businessmen in Singapore.

On 2 February, Dr Karaganov will give a public lecture titled ‘Permanent Geoeconomic and Geopolitical Revolutions from a Russian Angle’ at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP). The lecture will focus on how events happening in the world are accelerating unpredictable change. Dr Karaganov will explain how this is a permanent revolution characterised by two interconnected revolutions – one geopolitical, one geoeconomic.

He will also give a talk at Jurong Junior College (JJC) on economic and political relations between Russia and other powers. JJC is “twinned” with a high school in Moscow for the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) as part of the Friends@YOG programme, a cultural and education initiative. Under the programme, each school in Singapore is paired with one of the 204 National Olympic Councils participating in the games.

A respected thought leader, Dr Karaganov has authored 22 books and brochures, and published about 400 articles on Russian foreign and defence policies, security and the economic aspects of Russian-European interaction. He is Chairman of the Valdai Discussion Club, which aims to create an international framework where top Russian state officials and international experts could debate on the development of Russia and its role on the global scale. He is also Deputy Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Since 1995, the SIF, under the DVP, has brought prominent leaders from the business, political and civil society sectors, as well as other public personalities from around the world, to Singapore. Through the programme, the distinguished visitor has an opportunity to become better acquainted with different facets of Singapore; share thoughts and ideas on issues of mutual interest, not only with his or her direct counterparts but also the larger Singaporean society; and build a personal network of Singaporean friends and contacts.

Former SIF distinguished visitors include Dr Jürgen Hambrecht, Chairman of the world’s largest chemical’s company BASF SE; Her Excellency Chou Bun Eng, Secretary of State, Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Cambodia; and most recently Mr James Leape, Director General of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Dr Karaganov is the SIF’s first distinguished visitor from Russia.