Dr Michael Raska

Assistant Professor

Coordinator of Military Transformations Programme, IDSS

Education: BA (Missouri Southern State College); MA (Yonsei University); PhD (LKYSPP, NUS)

Entity: IDSS

DID: +65 6592 3660

Following links control the content below

Biography

Areas of Expertise

Professional Activities

RSIS Publications

External Publications

RSIS Modules Taught

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Biography

Dr Michael Raska is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Military Transformations Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests focus on East Asian security and defense issues, including theoretical and policy-oriented aspects of military innovation, force modernisation trajectories, information conflicts and cyberwarfare in East Asia. He is the author of Military Innovation and Small States: Creating Reverse Asymmetry (Routledge,2016) and co-editor of Security, Strategy, and Military Change in the 21st Century: Cross-regional Perspectives (Routledge, 2015). He has published in peer-reviewed professional and academic journals such as the Korea Journal of Defense Analysis, Pointer-Journal of Singapore Armed Forces, and Asian Journal of Public Affairs. His academic contributions also include chapters in edited volumes in cooperation with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS); European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS); Center for New American Security (CNAS); the Norwegian Institute of Defense Studies (IFS); the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, UC San Diego; the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), and the US Army War College. His strategic assessments, commentaries, and op-eds have been published by the National Interest, Project Syndicate, Defense News, The Diplomat, East Asia Forum, RUSI Newsbrief, Asia Times, and select newspapers worldwide. He has also been a frequent commentator on Asian security issues for the BBC World News, CNBC, Channel News Asia, and other media networks. Dr Raska has previously taught at the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College (SAF Campaign and War Studies Course) and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (International Security). His research experiences include visiting fellowships at Yonsei University, Pacific Forum CSIS, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Rothberg International School). He is an alumnus of the Columbia / Cornell University Summer Workshop on Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy (SWAMOS 2012), the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies Workshop at Basin Harbor (2013), the Hertog Summer Study Program (2014), Japan Ministry of Defence Opinion Leader Program (2016), and the German Marshall Fund Young Strategists Forum (2017). He holds a BA in International Studies (summa cum laude) from the Missouri Southern State University (2000), MA in International Relations from the Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University (2002), and a PhD in Public Policy and International Affairs (2012) from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, where he was a recipient of the NUS President’s Graduate Fellowship.

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Areas of Expertise

Military Innovation: Theory, Processes, and Debate – Impact of emerging disruptive technologies and new types of armaments on military transformation and modernisation, particularly when it comes to new operational concept and new operating areas, especially in the maritime, air, and space domains;

Security Conceptions, Strategic Trends, and Military Modernisation in East Asia: Regional approaches to military modernisation and its implications for the medium to long-term stability of the geo-strategic environment of the Asia Pacific;

Information & Cyber Warfare: Cross-Domain Strategic Interactions – Implications of cyber and information warfare on international security; Long-range trends and developments when it comes to future warfare.

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Professional Activities

Selected to provide expert testimony at the public hearing before the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, Singapore Parliament, 2018.

Selected as a participant in the Young Strategists Forum (YSF) by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Tokyo, Japan, 2017.

Selected as a participant in the Opinion Leaders Program by the Japan Ministry of Defense, Tokyo, Japan, 2015.

Selected as a participant in the Hertog Summer Study Program by the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, San Diego, CA, USA, 2014.

Selected as a participant in the Summer Workshop on the Relationship between National Security and Technology in China by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA, 2013.

Selected as a participant in the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies Basin Harbor Teaching Seminar, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University, 2013.

Selected as a participant in the Summer Workshop on Military Operations and Strategy (SWAMOS), Columbia / Cornell University, 2012.

Samsung Economic Research Institute, Center for Global Cooperation, Research Analyst, 2005-2006.

Fellow, Rothberg International School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2004

Pacific Forum CSIS, Young Leaders Program, 2003.

Fellow, Air Power Program, GSIS Yonsei University, 2003.

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RSIS Publication

Policy Reports

Countering the U.S. Third Offset Strategy: Russian Perspectives, Responses and Challenges

24 January, 2017

Confronting Cybersecurity Challenges: Israel's Evolving Cyber Defence Strategy

08 January, 2015

The AirSea Battle Debate and the Future of Conflict in East Asia

01 February, 2013

Commentaries

Singapore Defence Technology Summit - Is the Innovation Winter Coming?

26 June, 2019

The SAF After Next Incarnation

08 March, 2019

CO18105 | Singapore’s Next Frontier: In Search of Defence Innovation

25 June, 2018

CO18071 | Cross-Domain Coercion: Contours of East Asia’s Future Conflicts

24 April, 2018

CO17205 | North Korea Threat and Asian Markets: A Paradox?

01 November, 2017

CO17165 | Strategic Contours of China’s Arms Exports

11 September, 2017

CO17102 | 4G SAF: Creating New Advantages

24 May, 2017

CO16223 | China's Quantum Satellite Experiments: Strategic and Military Implications

05 September, 2016

CO16156 | Cyber Conflicts and Singapore’s ‘Total Defence’ Strategy

23 June, 2016

CO16093 | Tailored Deterrence: Influencing North Korean Decision-Making

22 April, 2016

CO16032 | The Real Star Wars: Improving Satellite Defences

11 February, 2016

CO15262 | Hybrid Warfare with Chinese Characteristics

02 December, 2015

C015172 | Cyber-Enabled Hybrid Conflicts in East Asia

17 August, 2015

CO15091 | Russia’s Concept of Hybrid Wars: Implications for Small States

14 April, 2015

CO15045 | Decoding China’s Cyber Warfare Strategies

04 March, 2015

CO14229 | Back to the Future: China’s Defence Industry Innovation Paths

19 November, 2014

CO14192 | Building a Cyber Iron Dome: Israel’s Cyber Defensive Envelope

02 October, 2014

CO14130 | Toward Stealth and Sea Denial: Submarine Modernization in East Asia

07 July, 2014

CO14030 | SINGAPORE AIRSHOW: China’s Aviation Industry on the Horizon?

13 February, 2014

CO14026 | SINGAPORE AIRSHOW: East Asia’s Changing Security Dynamics: The Role of Airpower

11 February, 2014

CO14008 | Rethinking Asia-Europe Security Cooperation

15 January, 2014

CO13163 | China's [Secret] Civil-Military Megaprojects

02 September, 2013

CO13119 | Information Warfare 3.0: Weapons of Mass Effectiveness

28 June, 2013

CO13101 | Australia's Evolving 'Smart Power' Strategy

28 May, 2013

CO13052 | South Korea's Security Predicaments: Preparing for 'Hybrid Conflict'

02 April, 2013

CO13013 | Submarine Trends in Asia Pacific: Air-Independent Propulsion A Game Changer?

24 January, 2013

CO12219 | Creating Reverse Asymmetry: Patterns of IDF's Military Innovation

05 December, 2012

CO12194 | China's Defence Aviation Industry: Searching for Innovation

17 October, 2012

CO12158 | Decoding the Air-Sea Battle Concept: Operational Consequences and Allied Concerns

23 August, 2012

CO12105 | Ascertaining China’s Strategy for the Korean Peninsula: Implications for the U.S.-ROK Alliance

20 June, 2012

CO12039 | Iran’s Nuclear Conundrum: Israel’s Strategic Options

12 March, 2012

CO12031 | From Copier to Innovator? China’s Ballistic Missile Modernisation

21 February, 2012

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External Publications

Authored Books

Raska, Michael. Military Innovation in Small States: Creating a Reverse Asymmetry. Routledge, 2015

Creating Reverse Asymmetry: Military Innovation in Small States (London: Routledge, 2015 Forthcoming).

Edited Books / Special Issues

Jo Inge Bekkevold, Ian Bowers and Michael Raska (eds.), Security, Strategy and Military Change in the 21st Century: Cross-Regional Perspectives, Routledge, April 2015.

Jo Inge Bekkevold, Ian Bowers and Michael Raska (eds.), Security, Strategy and Military Change in the 21st Century: Cross-Regional Perspectives, Routledge, April 2015.

Journal Articles

“Strategic Competition for Emerging Military Technologies: Comparative Paths and Patterns” in PRISM, 8, 3, 2020, 64-81

“Strategic Competition and Future Conflicts in the Indo-Pacific Region” in The Air Force Journal of Indo–Pacific Affairs , Vol. 2, No. 2, 2019, pp. 83-97

“Cybersecurity in Southeast Asia” (with Benjamin Ang) in Asia Centre, 2018. 1-9

“Locating China’s Place in the Global Defense Economy” (with Michael Raska, et.al.), in Forging China’s Military Might: A New Framework for Assessing Innovation (Tai Ming Cheung, ed.), Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014

“RMA Diffusion Paths and Patterns in South Korea’s Military Modernization,” Korean Journal of Defense Analysis 23, no. 3 (2011): 369-385.

“Five Waves of RMA Theory,” Pointer - Journal of Singapore Armed Forces 36, no.3 (2011): 1-12

“Beyond the Bomb in the Basement: Israel’s Nuclear Predicament & Policy Options,” The Asian Journal of Public Affairs 1, no.2 (2011):22-33.

“The Concept of Reverse Asymmetry: Israel’s Military Innovation,” RUSI Newsbrief 33, no.1 (2013).

“The Air-Sea Battle Debate and the Future of Conflict in East Asia,” RUSI Newsbrief 32, no.6 (2012).

Chapters in Edited Books

Michael Raska, "South Korea's Military-Innovation Trajectories," In: Cronin, Patrick (ed.), Breakthrough on the Peninsula: Third Offset Strategies and the Future Defense of Korea (Washington D.C.: Center for New American Security, 2016), 23-39.

Koh, Swee Lean, Collin; Richard A. Bitzinger; Michael Raska; Kelvin Wong Ka Weng. “Locating China’s Place in the Global Defense Economy” in Tai Ming Cheung (ed.), Forging China’s Military Might: A New Framework for Assessing Innovation, pp. 169-212. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.

“Locating China’s Place in Global Defense Economy,” with Richard Bitzinger et. al., in Forging China’s Military Might: A New Framework for Assessing Innovation, ed. Tai Ming Cheung (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).

“China’s Strategic Imprint on the Korean Peninsula: Crisis Scenarios and Implications for the US-ROK Alliance,” in Contending for the Asia-Pacific: New Dynamics in US-China Relations, eds. Mingjiang Li and Kalyan Kemburi (London: Routledge, 2014).

“Capacity for Innovation: Technological Drivers of China’s Future Military Modernization,” with Richard Bitzinger, in The PLA in the 2025, eds. Roy Kamphausen and David Lai (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2014 Forthcoming).

“Debating Military Innovation: Conceptual Approaches,” in Managing Military Change: Strategic Thinking, Reforms and Adaptation in a Changing Security Environment, eds. Jo Inge Bekkevold and Dahiya Rumel (Oslo: Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies, 2014 Forthcoming).

“SSK Submarine Modernization in East Asia: The Role of Air Independent Propulsion Systems,” in Emerging Critical Technologies and their Impact on Asia-Pacific Security, ed. Richard Bitzinger (London: Palgrave, 2014 Forthcoming).

“China’s Military Aviation Industry: In Search of Innovation,” in The Chinese Defense Economy Policy Briefs: Sector-by-Sector Assessments and the Role of Military End Users, ed. Tai Ming Cheung (San Diego: Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, 2013)

Op-Eds

“Cybersecurity in Southeast Asia” (with Benjamin Ang), Observatoire Asie du Sud-Est , 22 May 2018

“What is China’s Strategy for North Korea?” Aljazeera, May 15, 2014.

“Singapore’s Smart Army,” East Asia Forum, March 1, 2014.

“East Asia’s Changing Security Dynamics and the Role of Airpower,” Defense News, February 3, 2014.

“Time to Rethink Asia-Europe Security Cooperation?” The Korea Herald, January 19, 2014.

“Scientific Innovation and Chinese Military Modernization,” The Diplomat, September 3, 2013.

“Australia's Evolving 'Smart Power' Strategy,” The Jakarta Post, June 7, 2013.

“Information Warfare on the Korean Peninsula,” ASPI Strategist, March 13, 2013.

“Integrating Information Warfare into U.S.-ROK Defense Strategy,” The Korea Herald, March 4, 2013.

“China’s Defense Aviation Industry: Toward Stealth Innovation?” with Alanna Krolikowski, East Asia Forum, March 11, 2013.

“South Korea’s Changing Security Paradigm,” Project Syndicate, February 10, 2013.

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RSIS Modules Taught

S6038 – Conflicts in the Digital Age: Information and Cyberwarfare