Dr. Shamsuddin L. Taya is the Head of Reseach Division at the Development Academy of the Bangsamoro, Office of the Chief Minister, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). He has written a book titled “The Strategies and Tactics of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Southern Philippines, Universiti Utara Malaysia Press, 2009, and co-authored “ Dynamic of ethnic relations in Southeast Asia, Cambridge, 2010. Dr. Shamsuddin also has published several articles in internationally reputed journals. His areas of specialization include International Relations, Ethnic Conflict, Nationalism and Islamic Political Movements in Southeast Asia. His latest publications include “Relevance of Fisher’s Model of Third-Party Intervention: The Case of Malaysia’s Mediation to the Bangsamoro Conflicts” in International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology (IJARET) in 2020 and “Modernist Islamic Perspective: Assessing Bangsamoro Jihad in The Southern Philippines” in Journal of Advanced Research (2019) in Dynamical and Control Systems (JARDCS). In 2007-2019, he was a visiting scholar at the Department of International Affairs, School of International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).