Centinel is a public safety and management consultancy firm. Headquartered in Singapore, Centinel is founded on the ethos of connecting the dots in a rapidly evolving and complex security environment. Centinel provides authoritative perspectives on the threat of terrorism, its impact on public safety and strategies to prevent, manage and mitigate threats to states, businesses and the global community.
Centinel comprises a dynamic team of experts, scholars, practitioners and linguists that identify patterns of emerging risks and threats, generate robust data-driven insights to provide clarity amidst complexity.
She is concurrently Adjunct Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore where she was formerly the Deputy Head of RSIS’ specialist International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.
She received her PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK. She specialises on terrorist and extremist groups in Asia. She was an Assistant Professor with the Homeland Security Programme at Rabdan Academy, UAE and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies (CAPS) in Kabul, Afghanistan. She has conducted field research in several threat zones including Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand and the insurgent areas of Bangladesh. In that connection she interviewed numerous leaders and members of terrorist and politico-religious groups Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
She has conducted training programmes for Counter Terrorism Law Enforcement, Security and Intelligence Practitioners and Analysts in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia including Afghanistan since 2008. She has been a consultant for the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and has been an instructor at the NATO Center for Excellence – Defense Against Terrorism (COEDAT) in Ankara, Turkey. She is on the list of specialist instructors for the European Union’s Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe.
She has co-edited several books including Terrorist Rehabilitation and Counter Radicalisation: New Approaches to Counter-Terrorism, (UK: Routledge, 2012); Countering Extremism: Building Social Resilience through Community Engagement, (London: Imperial College Press, 2013) and Resilience and Resolve: Communities Against Terrorism (London: Imperial College Press, 2015) and Faith, Identity and Cohesion: Building a Better Future (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2020).
Irfani Saripi is a Regional Research Coordinator (Informatics – Southeast Asia) at Centinel.
As a Research Coordinator for Informatics, she specialises in monitoring trends of radicalisation and providing threat analyses of propaganda and narratives from Southeast Asian extremist websites, social media networks and platforms online.
An Al-Azhar University graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Islamic Jurisprudence, Irfani studies global terrorist rehabilitation efforts in the Middle East, East Africa, and Southeast Asian countries to understand best practices in preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism.
With a Diploma in Counselling Psychology under her belt, she is an active member of the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) since 2008; a group comprising volunteer Islamic clerics who provide counselling for terrorist detainees, their wives, and also self-radicalised individuals in Singapore.
She holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Studies and a Certificate in Terrorism Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) where she was formerly an Associate Research Fellow.
Nur Aziemah Azman is a Regional Research Coordinator (Informatics – Middle East) at Centinel.
A well accomplished researcher and linguist with more than 12 years of experience, she specialises in the monitoring and analysis of propaganda and narratives from extremist websites and social media networks and platforms online. Aziemah has travelled to Indonesia, the Philippines, Yemen and East Africa for research on extremism and terrorism. Given her extensive experience at a research institute at one of Singapore’s two major national universities, she presently coordinates and manages data from research associates and data specialists in the region that contribute to the wide range of Centinel’s data driven research that provides specialised insights.
Aziemah graduated from Al-Azhar University in Egypt with a BA in Islamic and Arabic Studies, majoring in Arabic Language and Literature. She holds a MSc of Science in Arabic-English Translation and Computer-assisted Translation Tools from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK. She has written numerous commentaries and articles on terrorist propaganda and narratives, online extremism, and regional terrorist trends.
V. Arianti is a Regional Research Coordinator (Indonesia) at Centinel.
She previously worked at Jakarta-based think tank The Habibie Centre between 2005 – 2006 as a programme officer and a researcher prior to pursuing her postgraduate degree in Singapore. She was formerly an Associate Research Fellow at a research think tank in Singapore, where she led the Southeast Asia desk, focusing on identifying terrorist and extremist threats in the region.
An experienced analyst with extensive knowledge and a keen eye for detail, she is adept at providing assessments on extremist and terrorist threats in Indonesia. Her work has been published in leading newspapers in the region such as The Straits Times, Today, Channel News Asia, New Straits Times and The Jakarta Post. With close to two decades of experience, her articles published in The Diplomat, East Asia Forum, New Mandala, Global Network on Extremism & Technology, The Middle East Institute, and European Eye on Radicalisation have been well received. She authored a book chapter titled “Indonesia” in Handbook of Terrorism in the Asia Pacific (London: Imperial College Press, 2016).
She holds a MSc in International Political Economy from Nanyang Technological University (NTU). She obtained her Bachelor’s degree from the School of Social and Political Science of Universitas Indonesia (University of Indonesia), majoring in International Relations.
Ainah Manap is Manager, Strategic Projects and Partnerships at Centinel.
An Arts graduate from Temasek Junior College, Ainah has a Diploma in Tourism (Venue Management and Operations) and an Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment. She helms the administration and logistics of events and projects run by Centinel, and additionally oversees strategic partnerships with various local and international stakeholders for the firm.
Ainah was previously a Senior Bahasa Indonesia/Malay/English translator at a local university for 13 years where she held two portfolios – Team Lead of Capacity Building and Language Team. Besides translation duties, she also organised training courses and staff events.
Ainah is also a Singapore Tourism Board (STB) licensed tour guide since 2008. Given her background in languages, she enjoys conducting private tours as well as group tours in Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu and English. Besides the Long Service Award received from STB in 2018, her passion for tour guiding and telling interesting stories won her the Singapore Tourism Board’s Singapore Experience Awards in Customer Service (Tour Guiding) in 2012. She was also a finalist in the same event in 2011. The annual Singapore Experience Awards recognises outstanding individuals and companies in Singapore’s Tourism Sector.
