Total Defence

Total Defence is a concept introduced by the government of Singapore in 1984 to improve readiness in matters related to the defence and national security of Singapore, and is partly based on similar concepts in Switzerland, Denmark, Estonia and Sweden. In fact, the concept has very close similarities (including the “five aspects of Total Defence”, discussed below) to the 1972 adopted Total Defence concept in Austria. This concept rests on the notion that the defence of the country cannot rely only on the regular armed forces. Thus the concept declares that government agencies, private sector organisations and all Singaporeans are to be involved in an effort to deal with security threats facing Singapore. It can be compared to the concept of total war.