Pod#5 Flash Points and Fleets: Southeast Asian Naval Operations

Who guest features on Pod#5?

Dr Collin Koh is a Defence and Strategic Studies Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Collin’s research areas include naval affairs and maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly Southeast Asia. Dr Koh has previously lectured for Singapore Armed Forces professional military education courses and has published his written work widely in both academic journals and op-eds, including for the Naval War College Review. Some of his published works include Seeking Balance: Force Projection, Confidence-building and the Republic of Singapore Navy and Emerging from obscurity: small navies and sea-launched land-attack cruise missiles.

What do we discuss?

  • Offence-Defence theory and how to interpret which is which in the modern context
  • The Chinese Communist Party’s concept of ‘active defence’
  • Southeast Asian flash points and naval operations
  • Sino-Indian rivalry at sea and the emergent maritime security dilemma
  • Naval modernisation and operations of Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia’s naval forces
  • Indonesia’s disputed Northern Natuna Sea and Minimum Essential Force strategy
  • Dr Koh also accepts our Sailor’s Three challenge and has a particularly interesting answer to the emerging technology question

The opinions and comments made in this Pod and on this website do not represent the official position of any government, organisation or entity.

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