Government plays vital role in promoting and protecting the country’s national interests
- Countries seek to protect or achieve their national interests
- Country’s national interest refer to what is necessary to ensure its security and well being
- These national interests influence the objectives of the country’s foreign policy
Example of national interests:
- Ensuring that the country’s trade with others can promote economic growth
- Ensuring that the country’s population has sufficient food and water for survival
- Ensuring that the country is safe from attacks by other countries
Through diplomacy
Governments engage in diplomacy to develop foreign relations
- Diplomacy is the practice of obtaining agreement between countries to cooperate in order to produce results that align with their interests
- Countries conduct diplomacy to promote common interests and resolve conflicting interests in a peaceful manner
- With strong and friendly ties with other countries, a small country like Singapore can promote and protect its national interests.
SocialStudiesExamples Singapore → actively forges strong bilateral relationships → to do so → Singapore’s political leaders frequently meet with leaders of other countries to exchange views and find ways to promote mutual interests in areas such as trade and security.
SG - maintains strong bilateral relations with Malaysia.
Example: water security, which serves Singapore’s national interests Under 1962 water agreement:
- Draws 250 million gallons of raw water per day from the Johor River
- In return, SG provides Malaysia with a daily supply of treated water up to 2% of the volume supplied to Singapore.
Singapore → also establishes multilateral relationships with other countries through its memberships in regional and international organizations.
SocialStudiesExamples Singapore’s membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) → example of how SG government promotes and protects Singapore’s national interests through multilateral relationships.
ASEAN → cornerstone of Singapore’s foreign policy and is of critical importance to Singapore. Through ASEAN → SG has been able to establish partnerships with countries within and beyond ASEAN.
One such partnership → regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) → a trade agreement signed by Singapore and 14 other Asian pacific countries. Aims of the RCEP:
- Deepens economic cooperation in Asia pacific region
- Facilitate expansion of trade and investment in the Asia pacific region
- Increase opportunities for businesses and employment for the people in the Asia pacific region.
Businesses in Singapore can take advantage of of strengthened trade ties among RCEP members
More cost savings, more profits
- Businesses have more opportunities to expand in the Asia pacific region as the RCEP eliminates tariffs for about 90% of goods traded among the members
Conducive environment for a digital economy
- Companies involved in ecommerce, digital services and digital trade → can gain more confidence in expanding their businesses in the region. ⇒ this is because RCEP is committed to protecting consumers personal information, paperless trading, electronic authentication systems and cyber security.
Through Deterrence
Country practices deterrence to protect its security and ensures that it is safe from attacks by another country.
- Deterrence refers to measures a country takes to discourage potential aggressors by making it costly for them to attack
- To deter potential aggressors, countries might build their military capabilities and defenses in the air, on land and at sea.
Example: military of defense develops Singapore armed forces (SPF) to respond to military threats. SocialStudiesExamples Check if you need to know examples of defense vehicles __