Category: Debate Floor
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Third Pole: How Settler Colonialism locks conflict and undermines Empire
How settler colonisation tends to build the settler caste up as a “third pole”, in competition with both the indigenous population and the imperial core, ensuring the enduring stability of a horrific state of war and struggle.
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Functions of Arms and Interstate Violence: An Expanded Framework
This piece shall strive to act as a reminder and interpretation of as well as an update to Schelling’s classic work of strategic studies. Assisted by original diagrams that map out Schelling’s strategic theory, the first half shall seek to adapt Schelling’s Cold War US-centric theory for a more general model of conflict that broadly…
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Reactionary Internationale: What a globally-networked, export-friendly Far-Right is and means for the world
In February 2021, a 16-year old Christian Indian student in Singapore was arrested for plotting terrorist attacks on two mosques after being radicalized online. Such a plot was the first of its ideological kind in Singaporean history, marking a new chapter in Singapore’s fight against terrorism, which before had mainly dealt with Salafi-jihadism and revolutionary…
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Trading National for Service: How Conscription cripples State Control in exchange for Military Might
This response essay seeks to illustrate why conscription is a process that does not produce political control, coherence and influence, but rather spends that very resource of control in exchange for the military resource of manpower.
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A Gray-Zone shaped Hole: Why “Escalation Ladders” affect Deterrence analysis and planning
this essay will attempt to build upon LTC Harris Tan’s piece on deterrence through adopting and adapting the “escalation ladder” to think about conflict and aggression with greater logical specificity and clarity.
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Sowing Addiction, Reaping Reliance: The Imperial Hard-Power Logic of Foreign Aid
To people who are fundamentally distrustful of the loyalty of friends and partners in International Relations, foreign aid can seem like a frivolous expenditure of critical state resources. This piece will seek to prove that with some strategic imagination and material re-prioritization, foreign aid can still be used as an excellent method of intense, even…
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Inoculating the Republic: Securing Singapore from Superpower Subversion through Open, Mass Political Policing
This piece shall dive deeper into threat analysis on subversion threats facing Singapore and based on that threat analysis, explain why an empowered political policing process that goes beyond hunting extremists is a necessary step in safeguarding the integrity of Singapore’s political process and social cohesion.
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A Better Militarization: why police should adopt military cultures and structures of accountability and restraint
An analysis of police conduct from the perspective of civil-military relations and state political development.
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To Deal with Devils: Why Arms Sales to Humans Rights Abusers and War Criminals should continue
This essay will argue that liberal states (or states that otherwise uphold the status-quo rules-based liberal order), should maintain controlled arms sales to rogue states and international bad actors, with room for specific temporary restrictions, for sake of limiting atrocities, building cooperation and securing domestic interests.
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Why Historical Claims are bad logic and bad policy
From the Elgin Marbles to Jerusalem to South China Sea islands, claims on territory, artefacts or sites based on history are rampant. Rather than pointing to tangible and more easily measurable indicators of competency or popularity, states have often resorted to waving old maps and descriptions at each other to justify a right to rule…
UnderStated 