HOW APPSMO BEGAT APPSNO: A PERSONAL REFLECTION

To set the context for my reflections on APPSMO, I need to take a few steps back and talk about a related programme: APPSNO. In March 2006, I was tasked by then-Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS - renamed the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies or RSIS in January 2007), Ambassador Barry Desker, to set up the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) as a component research unit within IDSS/RSIS. From the get-go, one of the flagship programmes of CENS would be what I persuaded colleagues in the Singapore government to agree to call APPSNO - the Asia Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers. With the cooperation of my colleagues in the National Security Coordination Secretariat (NSCS) in the Prime Minister’s Office, I rejigged existing ad-hoc security courses for mid-level civil servants across the ministries as part of the process of creating APPSNO. As Head of CENS, I oversaw eight memorable runs of APPSNO from 2007-2014, before handing the reins of CENS - and responsibility of oversight for future APPSNOs - over to my distinguished successor Dr Shashi Jayakumar.