Total Defence involves every Singaporean playing a part, individually and collectively, to build a strong, secure and cohesive nation. When we are strong, we are able to deal with any crisis.

As a small, multi-racial, multi-religious nation dependent on free trade to survive, and connected to the world by air, sea and the Internet, Singapore is inevitably affected by developments around the world in some way or another. Since its launch in 1984, Total Defence has rallied Singaporeans together in responding to challenges that threaten Singapore’s independence and well-being, such as terrorism, SARS and economic downturns. The core message is that every Singaporean has a part to play to help strengthen our defences against these threats and challenges.

We now face new challenges from the digital domain that have no physical boundaries or battlefields. Cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, and fake news are some of the ways that can now be used to divide and weaken us. We have thus added a sixth pillar of Digital Defence to the existing five pillars of Military, Civil, Economic, Social, Digital and Psychological Defence that explain the actions we can take to help us deal with the spectrum of military and non-military threats.