11 - Regional Security: The Singapore Perspective

Summary

The maintenance of good regional security is an extremely important consideration for Singapore. Two major motivations account for its importance in the country's agenda. The first of these is the small land area and population size of the country. Whereas these considerations make for easier domestic governance, the disproportionate endowments of immediately adjacent countries on both counts make the maintenance of external security that much more difficult. The second motivation lies in the manner of the country's traumatic birth as an independent state and its previously tense bilateral relations with Malaysia and Indonesia. This historical overhang has impressed the importance of external security on the Singapore government.

When considering Singapore's security perspective, it is useful to conceptualize it in two broad areas or categories. The first of these areas involves internal efforts at the achievement of regional security. There is a core component of internal self-reliance that is at the heart of Singapore's security strategy. This core comprises internal cohesion and preparedness as well as a domestically derived defence capability. In the local parlance, this capability is often referred to as deterrence that coexists alongside diplomacy as one of the pillars of the country's foreign policy. The second category pertains to external linkages and initiatives. These are layered and range from bilateral to multilateral initiatives, the maintenance of a clear policy of alignment with the United States, and membership in a formal alliance inspired by the British Commonwealth. Naturally, there are linkages between the two domains. These linkages are most clearly discernible in arrangements to enhance the operational abilities of the domestic armed forces and increasingly, external collaboration in defence research and design. The Singapore government is firmly convinced that in light of the small size of its conscript army, the utilization of technology allows it to maintain an edge over the other armed forces in the region. Technology is viewed as an instrument that provides a reliable multiplier effect to its small armed forces.