Annual Reports

FOREWORD
Prof Anthony Reid

This is the first report of the Asia Research Institute (ARI), and covers the period from 1 April 2002 to 30 June 2003. Although established as a budgetary and administrative unit on 1 July 2001, it began taking clearer shape during 2002, as Christopher Anthony was appointed as Manager on 7 January 2002 and I arrived as Director after an international search on 1 July 2002. In its first year of existence the Institute had been administered by Lily Kong, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, on behalf of the Steering Committee established by the university administration with Professor Wang Gungwu as Chairman. The other 2 members were Professor Lim Chin from Business and Associate Professor Terry Kaan from Law Faculty. Two professors of the Arts and Social Sciences Faculty, Ng Chin Kiong (History) and Chua Beng Huat (Sociology) had half-time appointments in ARI during that period. I am very grateful for the foundation laid by these colleagues.

The first year of my own Directorship was a very exciting one, in which the Institute grew rapidly into a vibrant intellectual community. Some appointments had been made before my arrival, but in consultation, so that I was able to begin on the same day as Visiting Professors James Warren and Pratipal Bhatia, and the first two of the NUS Assistant Professors selected for a semester of writing in preparation for their tenure review. Two post-doctoral fellows had taken up their positions earlier. Further appointments of visiting staff and post-doctoral fellows followed immediately after my arrival, with the result that we had a total academic staff of twenty by the end of this reporting period (seven on secondment from other parts of NUS), with a similar number appointed to arrive in the following academic year…