Ravinatha appointed Executive Director of Regional Centre for Strategic Studies

Friday, 31 October 2025 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Ravinatha Aryasinha

Ambassador (Retd.) Ravinatha Aryasinha, former Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka, has been appointed Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS).

As a career member of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service, he previously served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States; Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva; and Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union. He holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Peradeniya; a MA in International Relations from the University of Colombo; was a Hurst Fellow in International Relations at the School of International Service (SIS), American University, Washington DC, USA; and is currently a PhD candidate in International Relations at the University of Colombo.

The RCSS is an independent, non-profit, policy research centre co-founded in 1992 by Prof. Shelton Kodikara – its first Executive Director, to focus on a broad range of conventional and non-conventional sources of conflict and conditions of peace.

Headquartered in Colombo, the RCSS Board of Management includes scholars from South Asia, a Research Committee which also draws on international experts, and a wide network of alumni from its residential workshops and its annual awardees.

“The RCSS has a proud history of convening serious scholarship with real-world policy relevance,” said Ambassador Aryasinha. “My priority is to strengthen our research programme, deepen regional and international partnerships, and to expand opportunities for emerging scholars.”

Ambassador Aryasinha began his career as a pioneer TV Correspondent at the Sri Lanka Rupavahini (TV) Corporation and has also served as National Information Officer at the UN Office in Sri Lanka. Following retirement, until recently he was the Executive Director of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKI). He also serves on the Board of Management of the Gamani Corea Foundation, and is on the visiting faculty of the Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS), the National Defence College (NDC), and is a Distinguished Mentor at the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA).