Michael Vatikiotis is the Asia Regional Director for the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Based in Singapore, he works on promoting dialogue and conflict resolution in Asia and has a decade of experience working to mitigate conflicts in Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar as well as the Philippines. Formerly a BBC Correspondent and editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, Vatikiotis has been a writer, broadcaster and journalist in Asia for 30 years. With family origins in the Middle East, he has lived in Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand as well as Hong Kong.
An eminent Indonesianist, his two books on regional politics are used as university set texts: Indonesian Politics under Suharto and Political Change in Southeast Asia. His published fiction includes two novels set in Indonesia, The Spice Garden and The Painter of Lost Souls. His forthcoming work of non-fiction Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Southeast Asia will be published in May 2017 and will in part discuss his work as a peace negotiator.
Vatikiotis is a regular broadcaster and contributor to the opinion pages of several newspapers. Vatikiotis is a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, earned his doctorate, which was on Thailand, from Oxford University, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland. He is a member of the Asia Society’s International Council, an adviser to the Asia Literary Review, and speaks the Thai and Indonesian languages fluently.
