Naval War College Review Volume 65 Article 5 Number 1 Winter 2012 Seeking Balance Swee Lean Collin Koh Follow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review Recommended Citation Koh, Swee Lean Collin (2012) "Seeking Balance," Naval War College Review: Vol. 65 : No. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol65/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen Koh: Seeking Balance SEEKING BALANCE Force Projection, Confidence Building, and the Republic of Singapore Navy Swee Lean Collin Koh espite the widespread proliferation of studies on the major navies in DAsia, first and foremost that of China, writings on the small navies of Asia—Southeast Asia in particular—have been few and far between. The slant toward those major navies is warranted by their influence on the regional na- val balance of power. However, it scarcely does justice to the small navies of Southeast Asia, a region of huge maritime geostrategic importance with po- tential security ramifications for wider Asian and global maritime security. Southeast Asia is also the scene of an interesting and serious buildup of sophis- ticated naval capabilities. This article therefore attempts to redress, at least partially, the dearth of inter- est in the small navies in Southeast Asia, using the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) as a case study.