Dr. Sukma is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta, Indonesia. He was the former Indonesian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ireland and the International Maritime Organization from 2016 to 2020. He served as CSIS' Executive Director from 2009 to 2015. 

Since receiving a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1997, he has worked extensively on such issues as Southeast Asian security, ASEAN, Indonesia’s defence and foreign policy, military reform, Islam and politics, and domestic political changes in Indonesia.