International Relations and Security

A team of law students from the Singapore Management University’s School of Law propose enacting laws in Singapore that mandate the disclosure of radicalised individuals to the authorities, given the increased threat of terrorism posed by self-radicalised individuals, whilst taking into account legal and social policy considerations.

Since its establishment, the National Service (NS) institution has helped Singapore to maintain its security through military and civil defense. To increase the value proposition of NS in peacetime, Ng Paul Seen explores ways to enhance the nation-building aspect of NS, through a more holistic conception of the institution that includes individual development.

BY HONG DAE-UN AND LEE JU-YOEN The September 18–20 summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang captured the attention of the world. For the first time since the end of the Korean War, the two Koreas signed a de facto non-aggression pact that aims to greatly reduce […]

Within the same week in August 2018 that the White House welcomed the President of Kenya and pledged to expand U.S. economic cooperation in Africa, the leaders of the two largest economies in Europe (Germany and the United Kingdom) were crisscrossing in Africa with the same overarching mission: a focus on economic cooperation and the […]

BY KATYA KLINOVA My great-grandfather went through four labor camps during World War II and died in the fifth one. We try to keep the memory of him alive in the family, and when I tell his story to my school-age nephews, I consider it extremely important to refer to those death camps not as […]

BY DOUG LAVEY NIMBY, or “Not In My Backyard,” is a frequent theme in opposing a proposed local development. The rise of drones leads to a slight variation of this common acronym: NAMBY (“Not Above My Backyard”). As commercial and recreational drones increasingly populate the sky, a deceptively simple question arises. Where will drones fly? […]

Ben Davis should be allowed to disrupt or defer National Service, writes Brendan Dean. That this will not be allowed under current policy shows that the policy should be changed, to recognise the dynamics of team sports and the contributions to national spirit that having Singaporeans on the world athletic stage makes. The supposed choice between duty and talent development is a false dichotomy.

BY REED SOUTHARD “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”[1] So said Benjamin Franklin at the very birth of the American experiment. Yet Americans today, more and more, hang separately. We no longer collectively tune in to fireside chats, Walter Cronkite, or even Seinfeld. Instead, like a modern […]

BY CAMERON LINDSAY Last month, 27 of the 28 national European Union ambassadors to Beijing denounced China’s “Silk Road” project as one that hampers free trade and places Chinese companies at an advantage. The sentiments, in response to China’s One Belt Initiative (OBI), strongly contrast the themes of cooperation, openness, and mutual benefits espoused by […]

On January 20, 2018, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) entered the Syrian city of Afrin in what the Turkish government claims is a response to threats posed by Kurdish political groups within Turkey itself, and in northern Syria along the Syrian-Turkish border. Now Ankara must contend with an unclear near-future in which it may remain in Syria for an indefinite period of time.

ISIL violated international, national, regional and tribal law when it recruited children to participate in its armed conflict.  With ISIL’s loss of territory in Iraq, the rush to enact justice against perpetrators of these abuses has overlooked the status of children and the need to tailor treatment specifically to child soldiers who survived a brutal occupation.

BY CHRIS DYLEWSKI When I walk to class these days, I am usually wearing jeans and a collared shirt. On a brisk Cambridge morning, I’ll be hunched a bit into my peacoat to escape the brunt of the biting wind. I probably have my headphones in, listening to a podcast or audiobook as I walk. […]