Shangri-La Dialogue: False dichotomies, real consequences
What you see in the news is mostly theatre. The real defence diplomacy stays off the front page.
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Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing speaking at a Shangri-La Dialogue plenary session on May 31.
ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
Chan Chun Sing
In James Hilton’s famous 1933 novel, Lost Horizon, Shangri-La is a hidden paradise in the Himalayas where people go to escape the chaos of the world. It is a place of total solitude and peace.
But if you walk into the Shangri-La hotel in Singapore during the annual security summit, you will find the exact opposite. It is loud, crowded, and packed with defence ministers, generals and senior officials grappling with a world where global peace is rapidly fracturing.
