By Kulkarni Venugopal Vasant (Computer Science + NUSC ’28)
Alumni Insights Speaker, Michael Anthony (Mathematics + Yale-NUS ’17) with Yale-NUS and NUSC students and friends.
When Michael Anthony graduated from Yale-NUS College in 2017 with a major in Mathematics, he made what seemed like an unconventional choice: entering public service to work on international issues. However, for Michael, the logic was clear. “As a math major, I liked to wrestle with problems,” he explained. “And in international affairs, there can be no shortage.” There, any apparent ‘solution’ always leads to a new set of related problems.
That problem-solving instinct, and a strong desire to give back to Singapore and Singaporeans, launched him into a career spanning portfolios across multiple regions. No two portfolios have been the same, with each region, each issue and each context presenting different permutations of perennial puzzles.
Michael’s assignments have taken him on a wide range of overseas visits, from the Americas and Europe to the Middle East and Asia Pacific. He has also worked through a period of rapidly evolving global events, experiencing firsthand how diplomacy operates when the ground is constantly shifting. This operative environment is the norm today.
During his three-year posting in Russia, Michael visited cities across the entire country to deepen and broaden his understanding of the culture. Some of his most meaningful insights came from informal conversations over shared meals, where warm food brought people together much like it does in Singapore—and even more so during winter.
His experience with diplomacy is best summed by the word “paradox”. States’ destinies appear to be shaped by their geographies, yet examples such as Singapore demonstrate the power and dividends of agency. All navigate a world where power and principle co-exist, but do not always align. In the international system, antinomies coincide—norms or values that are individually valid but can sometimes be at tension with each other. No matter the paradox, he says, the only useful guide has been Singapore’s principles and interests, which are anchored in enduring traits such as a multiracial, multilingual, and multireligious population living on an island barely the size of New York. To know your self-interests, you must first know yourself.
Currently serving in a policy-coordination role, Michael continues to wrestle with the endless stream of problems that first drew him to the foreign service. We are proud to count Michael among our alumni and wish him every success as he continues to serve Singapore in an ever-changing world.
Thoughtful questions and answers shared over curiosity navigating life abroad and representing Singapore
Mr Anthony is the fourth alumnus invited back to campus in 2025 to speak to students under the Alumni Spotlight Series organised by the NUSC Committee Alumni Relations team.
