Singapore: The “Global City” in a Globalizing Arctic

Abstract

© 2017 Association for Borderlands Studies Singapore’s Arctic interests are typically explained by its limited regional market and the government’s stakes in shipping, maritime infrastructure, and global governance. Yet the city-state’s polar pursuits also reflect the government’s strategy of crafting a global national identity in step with its expansion of overseas economic activities. In this article, based on reviews of government speeches, documents, and press releases, observations at Arctic development conferences, and expert interviews, I first describe three regional shifts in the Arctic that have made Singapore’s involvement possible: the globalization of the Arctic economy, a transition from national government to global governance, and the production of the Arctic region as an investment frontier. Second, I elucidate the export-oriented industrial drivers of Singapore’s Arctic interests. These have led to the economy’s deterritorialization, which state discourses projecting Singapore as a “Global City” support. Third, I analyze how these two transformations—the Arctic’s globalization and Singapore’s deterritorialization—have together created an opportunity for the Singaporean government to “jump scale” in Arctic cooperation, specifically by shedding light on its partnerships with indigenous peoples’ organizations. As climate change accelerates, the Singaporean government’s Arctic efforts suggest that it sees the increasingly maritime region as a new scalar fix for overseas investment that it is securing through unconventional partnerships while living up to its quest to view the world as its hinterland. Singapore’s involvement in the Arctic may globalize the region’s economy, but it may also deepen northern dependence on place-based sectors like natural resources and shipping.