Regional Centre
for Strategic Studies
30 , July 2010
+94 112 690913, 690914
+94 112 690769
Email : rcss@rcss.org
About RCSS
 
Areas of Interest
RCSS facilitates scholars and other professionals of South Asia to address, individually and collectively, problems and issues of topical interest for all countries of the region.
The principal areas of focus:
conceptions & problems of national & regional security, and, recent trends in thinking and approaches to security & strategic studies
problems of conventional defence build-up & proliferation of nuclear weapons
issues of defence expenditure and disarmament
disputes and conflicts in intra and inter-state relations and their implications for regional and inter-regional cooperation and development
external factors in the security and stability of the region
refugees and migration; ethnic, religious and sectarian conflict and their trans-border implications; problems of governance; political violence, terrorism and other conflicts
sharing & management of resources, and geopolitical, economic & environmental factors in security, stability & cooperation in the region
conflict resolution & management, confidence-building and cooperative security
International Research Committee
The International Research Committee(IRC), together with the Executive Director of RCSS, guides the Centre’s research and core activities.
Professor Ataur Rahman
Professor of Political Science, Dept of Peace and Conflict Studies and Director,
Japan Study Center, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dr. Shaheen Afroze
Research Director, Bangladesh Institute for International and Strategic Studies,
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Dipankar Banerjee
Director, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi, India
Prof. Aparajita Biswas
Centre for African Studies, University of Mumbai, India
Prof. P. Sahadevan
Professor of South Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Prof. Talat Wizarat
Professor of International Relations, Karachi University, Pakistan
Prof. Nira Wickremesinghe
Professor, Department of History and International Relations, University of Colombo,
Sri Lanka
Prof. Neluka Silva
Head, Department of English, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Mr. Ibrahim Zaki
Special Envoy of the President of the Maldives
Dr. Nischal Nath Pandey
Director, Centre for South Asia Studies, Kathmandu , Nepal.
Prof. Stephen P. Cohen
Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution Washington DC, USA
Prof. Shen Dingli
Professor of International Relations, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Ex-officio
Prof Syed Rifaat Hussain
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of RCSS oversees the Centre’s administrative and financial matters.
Prof. R.A.Ariyaratne
Former Professor, Dept of History and International Relations, University of Colombo
Mr. Dilip Kodikara
Managing Director Dutch Lanka Trailer Manufactures Ltd.
Deshamanya M D D Pieris
Deputy Chairman Mercantile Merchant Bank Ltd and Senior Adviser to the Minister of Tourism.
Dr John Gooneratne
Former Ambassador / Diplomat
Prof. Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema
Dean, Faculty of Contemporary Studies, National Defense University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath
Honorary Director, WISCOMP, New Delhi, India
Executive Director
Professor Amal Jayawardane assumed duties as the sixth Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS) on January 1, 2009. He obtained his B.A. (Honours) from the University of Ceylon and M.A., Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. He is Professor at the Department of International Relations at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Formerly, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts (2006-2008) and the Head of the Department of History & International Relations (2001-2006), University of Colombo. He has also served as Visiting Professor at the School of International Service, the American University, Washington D.C., and Research Scholar at the Department of International Relations, London School of  Economics and Political Science.

He has also functioned as a Consultant to the National Integration Programme Unit (NIPU) of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and National Integration; member of the Coordinating Committee, Centre for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR), University of Colombo; Co-Director, Centre for Policy Studies and Research (CEPRA), University of Colombo; Member of the Board of Directors, Institute of International Studies (IIS), Kandy; Member, Board of Management, Bandaranaike Centre For International Studies (BCIS) and the Sri Lanka Institute of International Relations (SLIIR). During the period 1994-1997, he served as a Member of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry in respect of Involuntary Removal and Disappearances of Persons.
E-mail :
ed@rcss.org
amaljaya2000@yahoo.co.uk
Associate Director
.
Ambassador Geetha de Silva is the Associate Director of RCSS, appointed on December 1, 2007. She was a member of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service(SLFS) and last held the position of Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During her career spanning over 25 years as an SLFS officer she served as Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Canada; Deputy Chief of Mission with Ambassador rank at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington D.C. and Deputy Permanent Delegate of Sri Lanka to UNESCO, Paris, amongst other assignments. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs she held the positions of Additional Foreign Secretary/Political Affairs; Director General /South Asia and SAARC; Director/ South Asia and Deputy Director/ United Nations and Human Rights. A graduate of the University of Colombo, Ambassador de Silva holds a Diploma in International Relations of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies
E-mail :
adrcss@rcss.org
Rest of the Staff at RCSS
Finance and Administrative Officer
Ms Dilkie Koelmeyer
dilkie@rcss.org
Regional Liaison Officer-GPPAC South Asia
Ms Gayathri Nanayakkara
programmes@rcss.org
Programme Officer
Ms Nadeeka Withana
nadeeka@rcss.org
Librarian
Ms Kamani Perera
lib@rcss.org
Secretary
Ms Dharshani Dias
rcss@rcss.org
Office Assistant
Mr P Mahendran
pmahendran70@yahoo.com
Funding
Activities of RCSS have been supported and sustained by voluntary contributions, grants, endowments and partnerships through Ford Foundation, Asia Foundation, European Centre for Conflict Prevention, Hivos Netherlands, Independent Group on South Asian Cooperation (IGSAC), Japan Foundation Asia Centre, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Small Arms Survey, Geneva, UN Department of Disarmament Affairs (UNDDA), University of Bradford, University of Oxford, Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, Rockerfeller Foundation, W.Alton Jones Foundation, Ploughshares Fund, MacArthur Foundation, John Merck Fund, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), Safer World and Henry Stimson Center, amongst others.

 

 

 

Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, 68/1, Sarasavi Lane (off Castle Street), Colombo 08, Sri Lanka.
Tel: (94-11) 2690913-4,Fax: (94-11) 2690769, rcss@rcss.org