Pacific Affairs: An International Review of Asia and the Pacific

Volume 75, No. 1

 

The Socio-Economic Dimension in Singapore's Quest For Security and Stability
By Husin Mutalib

 

Abstract

There has been a perceptible change in Singapore's management of the 'security' issue in recent years. While military hardware and defense matters continue to be important, more non-traditional aspects of security have received greater attention given trends arising from both international and regional currents. Social and cultural considerations have come to play in the new strategic thrust of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the importance of the SAF is now being subsumed under a broader and more comprehensive defense framework, called 'Total' Defense'. Economically, the pro-market global outreach of Singapore's new economic vision is also impacting the Republic's security paradigm as the governmental elite tries to manage the competing tensions and other dialectics, consequent to Singapore's immersion into the mainstream global ethos.