Speaker Bio

Renato Cruz De Castro is a distinguished professor at the Department of International Studies, De La Salle University, Manila. He has written over 100 articles on international relations and security, published in several scholarly journals and edited volumes in the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Malaysia, France, Singapore, Taiwan, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. In 2019, the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Political Science Association (PPSA) announced that Professor De Castro is the most prolific Filipino Political Scientist in terms of scholarly publication and one of the top 10 Filipino Political Scientists in terms of citations. The 2022 AD Scientific Index ranked him 92nd among the top 100 scientists in the Philippines and one of the top 50 Social Scientists in the country. AD Scientific Index also ranked him as the number one Filipino Political Scientist in publications and citations. On December 20, 2024, the AFP Chief-of-Staff, Lt. General Romeo Brawner Jr., awarded Professor De Castro with the Sandigan AFP Stakeholder Award for his “extensive research, public education initiatives, and active involvement in institutions, which have significantly played a fundamental role in advancing the knowledge of regional security dynamics and its implications for Philippine sovereignty and regional security.”He earned his Ph.D. in Government and International Studies from the University of South Carolina as a Fulbright Scholar in 2001. He obtained his B.A. and two master’s degrees from the University of the Philippines.