Singapore’s Defense Metamorphoses
As the city-state faces an increasingly complex security environment, Singapore is adapting to meet new challenges.
As its cultural totem sitting at the mouth of “that river which brings us life”—as Singapore’s classic song celebrating its independence, Home, goes—can the Merlion be the security mascot in the toil for Singapore’s future?
Certainly, no analogy can be perfect, as the above discussion about the gaps regarding the poison shrimp, porcupine, and dolphin has demonstrated.
Searching for the Next Gen SAF image may be a fool’s errand, given the increasing complexity of the contemporary security environment.
Even as we desire such reductionist symbols as elegant proxies to anchor our thinking and communicate our actions, summing up Singapore’s defense policy succinctly and neatly, such shorthand may no longer be possible in the reality of the day.
Chang Jun Yan is Assistant Professor with the Military Studies Programme and the US Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. He has published on international and regional security, his area of focus, in various academic journals. Prior to joining RSIS, Jun Yan was a combat officer in the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN). He has participated in various multilateral maritime exercises, such as the Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) in Hawaii. He was also part of the RSN’s counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali Basin, Operation Blue Sapphire (Maritime) [OBS (M)]. Jun Yan graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a BSc in Political Science and a minor in English Studies, obtained his MSc (International Relations) from RSIS, and has a PhD from the University of Queensland, Australia.
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