RSIS hosted the 25th iteration of the Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO) at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront from 13 to 17 October 2024.
Inaugurated as the Summer Programme by Singapore’s 6th President and then-Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) in 1999, the late Mr S.R. Nathan envisioned a global platform that would facilitate interaction among military professionals, and provide a sustainable platform to encourage professional development of military affairs. APPSMO fulfils this raison d’etre by bringing together senior military officers and leading academics and practitioners from the ASEAN region and beyond to discuss current security matters. Previous speakers at APPSMO include luminaries such as Lt. General (Ret) Dr H.R. McMaster, Professor Wang Jisi, Professor Tommy Koh, Professor Bruce Hoffman, and Professor David Capie.
With the theme “APPSMO@25: Navigating Complexity in Geopolitics Today”, this year’s iteration examined the key challenges in the military operating environment today, made complex by an increasingly fractured geopolitical landscape. Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, Executive Deputy Chairman of RSIS, began the conference remarking that “the key to dealing with complex challenges is to understand the fundamental issue and discuss solutions.” Mr Zaqy Mohamed, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Defence and Manpower, encouraged the participants to use APPSMO as a meeting of minds to deal with a complex environment; sharing that “new technological developments could upend existing paradigms, and transform our security environment in ways we may not be able to foresee. This adds a new layer of complexity to the challenges that countries have to tackle.” Commemorating the 25th anniversary, SMS Zaqy Mohamad, Mr Peter Ho, Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, and Professor Kumar Ramakrishna, Dean of RSIS, led a cake-cutting ceremony to mark the long-standing history of the Programme.
To set the stage for the conference, Mr Peter Ho, Senior Advisor at the Centre for Strategic Futures, spoke on the difficulties of “Navigating Complexity in a Rapidly Evolving Geostrategic Environment”. This was followed by three panels that covered the following:
i) Complexity in grey zone issues and hybridity in the maritime domain
ii) Complexity from non-traditional security issues in climate change impact on the armed forces
iii) Complexity from technological challenges in geo-economic competition. The panels were designed to deal with topics or perspectives not traditionally available to the armed forces.
The final panel on “Whither Strategic Complexity?”, gave the participants the chance to ask three eminent speakers the “so what?” question. Dr Zack Cooper (Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)), Professor C. Raja Mohan (Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) and Professor Ken Jimbo (Professor of International Relations at Keio University and a Managing Director of Programs at the International House of Japan) shared their views and served as the sounding board for the Programme’s proceedings, aptly rounding up the discussions over the past three days.
The 25th APPSMO also saw two key lectures given by two prominent academics. The first was by Professor Jia Qingguo, Director of the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding, and Professor of the School of International Studies at Peking University, who spoke on “Rising Geopolitical Competition: Implications for Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia”. The second was by Dr Yose Rizal Damuri, Executive Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Indonesia, who shared his views on the topic “Complexity of Global Economy and Geopolitical Dynamics”.
As part of APPSMO’s experiential learning segment, the participants visited the Changi Regional Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Coordination Centre (RHCC) and the Singapore Navy Museum. The participants were briefed on the work of RHCC in coordinating HADR military operations as well as the history of the Republic of Singapore Navy.
Opening the 25th edition of APPSMO, Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Manpower, encouraged participants to “take advantage of the opportunity that APPSMO offers, to engage in an open exchange of views with your peers and explore innovative solutions to the challenges we face. I also urge you to cultivate meaningful and lasting friendships over the course of the next few days.” Watch his speech here:
Dr Yose Rizal Damuri, Executive Director, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indonesia, gave a Distinguished Speaker’s Lecture on “Complexity of Global Economy and Geopolitical Dynamics”. Watch his lecture here:
