Why do some international military interventions gain widespread support while others face greater scepticism? In answering this question, researchers have observed that international institutions like the UN Security Council and NATO play a key role in legitimising such interventions and thus garnering mass approval. Conventional wisdom suggests that factors like legality, material burden sharing, and regionalism determine whether an international institution can achieve this effect. A study by Assistant Professor Jonathan Chu, Presidential Young Professor in International Affairs at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, theorises and demonstrates a novel explanation for why international institutions can confer legitimacy: by sending social cues.

A drastic shift in US policy has knock-on effects for the whole world. After US President Donald Trump was elected to his second term, but before his inauguration, there was great uncertainty about what was in store. In Southeast Asia there was concern over implication to trade and security, especially surrounding the US-China relationship.

To respond strategically to the US administration's actions on international relations and trade, it is essential to have a good-enough model on what its goals are. 1. The traditional "guns vs butter" perspective on US tariff and other foreign policy actions is that economic efficiency is what everyone aims for, ideally, but we are sometimes diverted by, say, security considerations. Is that a useful model of the world now? I think no longer. In today's reality, the US administration might well view China as its no-compromise strategic adversary. But that administration is also lashing out at others (the EU, Japan, and other long-term friends and strategic allies) who might actually be helpful to the US in contending with China's hegemonic rise. The US's approach to geostrategic competition is both focused and unfocused, both razor-sharp narrow and flailing wildly.

Terence Ho, Adjunct Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, is a former policymaker and now academic. Terence's latest book, ‘Future-Ready Governance: Perspectives on Singapore and the World’, is a collection of essays exploring how Singapore is addressing critical issues like tech disruptions, climate change, social stresses, leadership transitions, and fiscal sustainability. Drawing on Singapore's experience, the book illuminates broader governance and leadership principles and aims to provide insights for those interested in Singapore's approach to navigating a complex future.