Reflections | Modern Singapore knows that vigilance is key. So did an ancient Chinese minister
Wei Jiang of the state of Jin epitomises the Chinese idiom ‘in times of peace, think of danger’ – something Singapore follows closely today
I have always been a worrier. For as long as I can remember, I have fretted over every conceivable disaster. Will that approaching car run me down because its driver neglected to fix its brakes? Will my apartment block collapse while I sleep? Will the latest war bring about the end of the world as we know it?
It is not debilitating – these thoughts come and go in brief, sporadic flashes – but more than one therapist has suggested that I have a tendency to catastrophise.
Their advice is familiar: live in the moment. Worrying changes nothing.
Really?
In a recent interview, Singapore’s foreign affairs minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, observed that the global landscape is shifting in ways that feel deeper and more structural than the usual ebb and flow of international politics.
The post-World War II order, he noted, with its rules and multilateral habits that provided a dependable backdrop to global trade and security for 80 years, has come to an end, giving way to what he described as a “geostrategic tectonic plate rupture”.
For a small, open country such as Singapore, such tremors cannot be ignored. Its government’s response, Balakrishnan said, would be to engage all major powers constructively; widen networks among middle powers; strengthen a stable and integrated Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean); deepen ties with immediate neighbours; and reinforce a rules-based international architecture.