National Service (NS) is one of Singapore's foundational public policies. First implemented by the British in 1954, amended in 1967 to provide a means to defend a fledgling independent nation, and codified into its present form in 1970, NS is a key pillar of Singapore's defence. Its significance, however, goes beyond defence. With over 1 million male Singapore citizens and permanent residents having served NS, and consequently involving many more — family members, friends, employers and colleagues — in different ways, NS is deeply woven into Singapore's political and social fabric. This volume brings together a range of scholarly perspectives on NS which explore its past, present and future in four sections: The history of NS, NS in practice, debates on NS and an international perspective. Comprising chapters by individuals from varied backgrounds, National Service in Singapore offers a broad account of one of Singapore's oldest public policies.
When Singapore declared independence in 1965, it faced the monumental task of building a military from scratch. Aristocracy of Armed Talent tells the story of the development of the Singapore Armed Forces through a collective portrait of its leaders. This book is based on interviews with twenty-eight flag officers, offering a firsthand look at Singapore's military from the very leaders who helped shape it. It addresses the challenges Singapore faced in building its officer corps and encouraging individuals to stay and make a career out of military service. In a society where the majority Chinese population traditionally devalued military careers, and where military service was associated with foreign occupiers and colonizers, Singapore had to learn to build a culture of leadership for its armed forces. It also dispels some of the myths that have shrouded military culture in the country. As former flag officers are often recruited into senior civil service and political roles, understating the military elite culture is central to understanding Singapore's politics. This book provides a rare window on an exceptional and globally influential institution.
Surrounded by larger and more populous nations in the heart of the Muslim Malay world, Singapore has been acutely aware of its vulnerability since separating from the Malaysian federation in 1965. Singapore's government has met its defense needs with characteristic determination, building powerful, well-equipped and highly-trained armed forces based on a relatively small professional core and much larger numbers of conscript and reservist citizen soldiers.
2019 marks the 50th anniversary of Singapore and Israel's long and fruitful relationship. From Jewish contributions to the economic, political and social development of early and modern-day Singapore, to current-day collaborations between both countries in the fields of science and technology, the Lion City and the Start-up Nation have forged strong and indelible bonds. Written by eminent Singaporeans and Israelis, the articles in this volume trace the growth and development of Singapore-Israel bilateral ties over the past five decades and celebrate the mutually beneficially relationship between the two countries.Related Link(s)
"Today Singapore ranks sixth in the world in healthcare outcomes well ahead of many developed countries, including the United States. The results are all the more significant as Singapore spends less on healthcare than any other high-income country, both as measured by fraction of the Gross Domestic Product spent on health and by costs per person. Singapore achieves these results at less than one-fourth the cost of healthcare in the United States and about half that of Western European countries. Government leaders, presidents and prime ministers, finance ministers and ministers of health, policymakers in congress and parliament, public health officials responsible for healthcare systems planning, finance and operations, as well as those working on healthcare issues in universities and think-tanks should know how this system works to achieve affordable excellence."--Publisher's website.
National Service (NS) is a defining part of the Singapore identity and it has been the rite of passage for every Singaporean son since 1967. Boys to Men: The Complete Guide for National Servicemen, put together by a team of professionals that includes doctors, exercise specialists, sports scientists, physiotherapists and military personnel, offers pragmatic advice for young men making the transition from civilian to National Serviceman. The invaluable information for physical and psychological well-being in this authoritative book will not just motivate readers, it promises to guide every enlistee through this major life event. What you will find in this book:• Illustrated exercises to improve strength and flexibility • Drills to improve running performance • Dietary tips and guidelines • Training techniques to ace the IPPT • A pre-enlistment conditioning programme
The National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) is the result of many years in the planning, and it finally officially opened its doors in September 2019, just months before the entire world was tested by the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is the work of many people who represent an even larger pool of people from NCID, Singapore and the rest of the world in trying to understand and contain the SARS- CoV-2 virus. There are chapters on science, the public health response both locally and globally, as well as personal reflections from NCID and Tan Tock Seng Hospital staff and staff from other public healthcare institutions who were deployed to NCID which bring home the human impact of the pandemic. We are very grateful to all the authors for taking the time to put together their thoughtful chapters as well as the senior academics and public health leaders who have provided us with generous comments on the manuscript. We hope that the readers of the book will gain a better insight into the response to the virus from so many different perspectives. Although the pandemic has evolved far beyond the pages of this book globally, the lessons learned from the early days are still relevant. We hope that the chapters will be helpful as we review our experience of this pandemic and face the next emerging infectious disease in the years to come.This book provides a comprehensive look at many different aspects of response in Singapore to the pandemic in the crucial first several months, including clinical, laboratory, epidemiology, research, community engagement and the unprecedented challenge of outbreak involving migrant workers in dormitory settings. On a personal note, it has first-hand accounts of staff at the NCID who were at the forefront of battling COVID-19 in Singapore. It also gives a global perspective of the pandemic, together with insights into the unique Singapore experience of managing the pandemic. The Singapore response to the pandemic has been something which the global community has been very interested in and this book is the first to comprehensively describe that response from a number of different angles which will be useful to scientists, clinicians, public health professionals and policy makers.
Dr. Goh Keng Swee's extensive career as a public servant was dynamic as well as distinguished, in many ways decisively instrumental in the making of the Republic of Singapore. This distinctive collection of essays attempts an assessment of the long-term influence and significance of Dr. Goh's major contributions.Envisaged as a companion volume to Goh Keng Swee: A Public Career Remembered, this volume brings together an exceptional team of Singaporean scholars whose interdisciplinary expertise and cross-generational perspectives offer a balanced analysis and nuanced appraisal of Dr. Goh's lifetime of public service. The book's contributors argue that Dr. Goh's past endeavours bequeathed an enduring legacy, meriting fresh examination and careful evaluation in order to appreciate the heroic scale of such achievement.Particularly instructive are the examples of Dr. Goh's thinking patriotism, fiscal prudence, strategic pragmatism, and creative imagination at work — technocracy at its finest — which could be of immediate, practical benefit to a wider ‘nation of technocrats’. Further illumination comes from the insights of those contributors who had worked with the former Deputy Prime Minister and knew him personally. For a half-century that witnessed key turning points and phases of development in Singapore's transformation from colonial port city to independent global city, Dr. Goh played a leading role in the crafting and conduct of public policy, as with the creation of public institutions, which made the difference between survival and success. The organization of this volume reflects both a thematic approach and a chronological arrangement of material, the focus and the order of chapters corresponding to the historical sequence of public offices that Dr. Goh held: social welfare; political and constitutional evolution; development economics and finance; the armed forces and defence industry; the education system, from schools through higher education to the research institutes; Chinese studies, from Confucianism to ‘China watching’; and cultural development, with special emphasis on the creation of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.Goh Keng Swee: A Legacy of Public Service will be read by present and future generations of public servants, by Singaporeans in general, and by all students and laypersons with an interest in the modern history of Singapore — social, economic, political, military, and cultural — to which a characteristically simple and frugal Dr. Goh contributed both decisively and unreservedly.
La Place de la Concorde Suisse is John McPhee's rich, journalistic study of the Swiss Army's role in Swiss society. The Swiss Army is so quietly efficient at the art of war that the Israelis carefully patterned their own military on the Swiss model.
