APPSNO 2019: National Security in the Age of Disruption

The 13th annual Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers (APPSNO) was held at Marina Mandarin Singapore from 7 – 12 April 2019. Organised by the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) with support from the National Security Coordination Secretariat (NSCS) in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the programme’s theme was National Security in the Age of Disruption”.

Speakers from a range of nations, including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, and Singapore shared their expertise and experiences on the following topics:

1. Drivers of Disruption – rethinking politics in a time of unprecedented challenges, a changing geopolitical landscape, and the weaponising of artificial intelligence to create propaganda.

2. Disrupting Violent Extremism – trends in radicalisation and mobilisation dynamics, cultivation of neo-Nazi groupuscules in an online context, and managing terrorism, extremism, and exclusivism in Southeast Asia.

3. Cybersecurity and Disruption – the current cybersecurity threat landscape and international efforts to address cyber threats, the geopolitics of technology, safety and security of autonomous and semi-autonomous systems, and Singapore’s strategy in creating a resilient and trusted cyber environment.

4. Technology and Society – digital platforms disrupting the labour force, models of platform cooperativism, the impact of automation on trade policy, upskilling workers, and the governance of Chinese society with AI technologies.

5. Case Studies – climate change as a national security threat, the regulation of cross-border cyber-intrusions, the impacts to society and work from new technology, and universal basic income as a solution.