[GEN2002Y] Total Defence Project Against Threat to Community

Owned by Ong Mui Hong
Last updated: 01 Apr 2024 by Sim Qin Ying
3 min read

IMPORTANT

  • Course duration. This is a year-long project-based course offered in both Semesters 1 and 2 of the Academic Year. GEN2002Y is offered in Semester 2 of the Academic Year; it runs till the end of Semester 1 of the following Academic Year, when grades are awarded. GEN2002X is offered in Semester 1 of the Academic Year; it runs till the end of Semester 2 of that Academic Year, when grades are awarded. You're expected to expend up to 40 hours developing the project (conducting surveys, developing prototypes, etc).

  • Note to graduating students. If you intend to graduate at the end of AY2024/25 and wish to read GEN2002, the latest you can enrol is Semester 1 of that Academic Year, in GEN2002X. Grades are awarded at the end of Semester 2, which means your degree will be conferred in end-June, and you will join the Commencement ceremony in the same year.

Through the years, the nature of threats have evolved from traditional security, e.g. territorial threats and terrorism, to hybrid threats, in which state or non-state actors conduct coordinated propaganda, sabotage, pressure, and other overt or covert non-military or military actions to subjugate the target. In this course, students will learn the key concepts of total defence to deal with such threats to a nation’s well-being; identify and articulate a potential hybrid threat to Singapore; and then design, and possibly execute, a community project that could provide suitable counter-measures that integrate an effective multi-faceted response to the identified threat. 

GEN2002 Video Introduction_Jan2023.mp4

 

Students will:

  1. Understand the fundamental concepts of total defence, in particular social, psychological and digital defences and their implementation in nations

  2. Understand the nature and evolution of hybrid threats to modern nation states

  3. Analyze key potential hybrid threats to Singapore in relation to the complex environment it operates in.

  4. Evaluate and synthesize an executable community project or initiative that could provide an effective counter-measure to this threat

Throughout the course, students will be challenged to engage in critical thinking including decomposing problems, questioning assumptions, biases and blind spots, and project management.  

Projects submitted may be introduced to the relevant ministries through our course partner, Nexus, MINDEF. See their webpage here. 

NIL

4 Units. As this course spreads over up to a year, it will count 2 Units in the first semester and the other 2 Units in the following semester. Thus, students can register for this course on top of their usual workload, such as of five other 4-Unit courses, without breaching the workload cap of 23 Units per semester.

There are no final exams. Students are required to attend lectures and tutorials in the first semester and work on their project proposal in groups of 4-6 throughout both semesters. There will be a project presentation in each semester. The ultimate deliverable is a 3000-4000 word project proposal addressing a specific threat to Singapore's community.

Please click here for frequently asked questions.

For further enquiries, please contact the Course Lead, Mr Kenneth Chong (pvocbsk@nus.edu.sg)

See you in Total Defence Project!