Introduction
In an era of rising geopolitical tensions, pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions, and growing public disillusionment with multilateral institutions, the case for prioritising national interests has gained renewed urgency and legitimacy. Governments are, first and foremost, accountable to their own citizens, and the persistent failure of global cooperation to deliver equitable outcomes has understandably fuelled a reassertion of national sovereignty. This essay argues that countries should prioritise national interests over global cooperation, as the primary duty of any government is to safeguard the welfare, security, and prosperity of its own people.
Governments have a primary democratic mandate to serve their own citizens, and this obligation must take precedence over the demands of international organisations and agreements.
Explain
The social contract that underpins democratic governance is between a state and its citizens, not between a state and the international community. When international agreements or multilateral obligations conflict with the welfare of a nation's own people, it is not only legitimate but essential for governments to prioritise domestic interests. To do otherwise is to betray the democratic trust that citizens place in their elected leaders and to subordinate national sovereignty to unaccountable supranational bodies.
Example
The United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union in 2016, driven by public concern over immigration, regulatory sovereignty, and democratic accountability, exemplified the reassertion of national interests over multilateral integration. Despite warnings of economic disruption, 52% of British voters chose national sovereignty over the perceived benefits of EU membership. Similarly, former US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017 and renegotiation of NAFTA into the USMCA reflected a prioritisation of American manufacturing jobs and trade balances over the broader goal of multilateral trade liberalisation. Singapore, while deeply committed to multilateralism, has always maintained a pragmatic 'national interest first' approach, as seen in its bilateral free trade agreements with major economies like the US, China, and India, which were pursued in parallel with multilateral efforts when WTO negotiations stalled.
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This supports the view that countries should prioritise national interests over global cooperation, as governments that fail to serve their own citizens' welfare in favour of abstract international commitments risk losing both democratic legitimacy and the trust of the people they are sworn to serve.
Global cooperation often produces inequitable outcomes that disproportionately benefit powerful nations, making the pursuit of national interests a rational strategy for smaller and less powerful countries.
Explain
International institutions and multilateral agreements are not neutral arenas but reflect the power dynamics of the global order. Major powers shape the rules of international trade, finance, and security to serve their own interests, and smaller nations that subordinate their national priorities to global cooperation often find themselves at a structural disadvantage. In this context, the assertive pursuit of national interests is not selfishness but a necessary corrective to an international system that does not treat all nations equally.
Example
The International Monetary Fund's structural adjustment programmes imposed on developing countries during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998 required austerity measures, privatisation, and market liberalisation that deepened economic suffering in countries like Indonesia and Thailand while protecting the interests of Western creditors. Malaysia's decision under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to reject IMF conditionality and impose capital controls was widely criticised at the time but proved effective, with Malaysia recovering faster than its neighbours that followed IMF prescriptions. Singapore navigated the crisis by drawing on its substantial foreign reserves and implementing targeted fiscal stimulus, prioritising national economic stability over adherence to the IMF's one-size-fits-all prescriptions, and emerged with its financial sector strengthened.
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This demonstrates that countries should prioritise national interests over global cooperation, as multilateral institutions frequently serve the interests of the powerful, and smaller nations achieve better outcomes by asserting their sovereignty and pursuing policies tailored to their own circumstances.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that in times of crisis, nations that prioritised their own citizens' welfare achieved better outcomes than those that relied on global cooperation mechanisms.
Explain
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility and inadequacy of global cooperation when nations faced existential threats. International organisations such as the WHO were criticised for slow and politicised responses, while multilateral vaccine distribution mechanisms like COVAX fell far short of their promises. Nations that acted decisively to secure their own supplies of vaccines, medical equipment, and essential goods protected their populations far more effectively than those that waited for international solidarity to materialise.
Example
Singapore's pandemic response exemplified the effectiveness of prioritising national interests. The government moved swiftly to secure bilateral vaccine supply agreements with Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Sinovac, becoming one of the most vaccinated nations in the world by mid-2021, with over 80% of the population fully vaccinated before many developing countries had received their first doses. Singapore also built strategic stockpiles of masks, ventilators, and test kits rather than relying on global supply chains that proved unreliable. By contrast, the COVAX facility, designed to ensure equitable global vaccine distribution, delivered fewer than 950 million doses by the end of 2021 against a target of two billion, leaving many African nations with vaccination rates below 10% despite their faith in multilateral cooperation.
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This strongly supports the argument that countries should prioritise national interests, as the pandemic demonstrated that decisive national action delivers results for citizens far more reliably than multilateral mechanisms that are slow, underfunded, and vulnerable to the self-interested behaviour of powerful nations.
Counter-Argument
Advocates of global cooperation argue that climate change is a collective-action problem that no nation can solve alone, and that Singapore's own existential vulnerability to sea-level rise demonstrates the folly of national self-reliance. The US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under President Trump undermined global mitigation efforts, and protectionist trade wars cost American consumers $3.2 billion per month in increased costs, showing that narrow national interest is ultimately self-defeating.
Rebuttal
However, global cooperation mechanisms have repeatedly proven inadequate in practice. The COVAX facility delivered fewer than 950 million vaccine doses against a target of two billion, leaving African nations with vaccination rates below 10 per cent, while Singapore's bilateral vaccine agreements made it one of the world's most vaccinated nations by mid-2021. The IMF's structural adjustment programmes during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis deepened suffering in Indonesia and Thailand while protecting Western creditors. Nations that relied on multilateral promises were consistently let down, while those that acted decisively for their own citizens achieved better outcomes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, countries should prioritise national interests over global cooperation because the fundamental obligation of any government is to its own citizens, and multilateral institutions have repeatedly proven inadequate at delivering fair outcomes. While international collaboration has its place, it must be subordinated to the sovereign right of nations to determine their own economic, security, and social policies. A world of strong, self-reliant nations is ultimately more stable than one dependent on fragile and politicised international consensus.
Introduction
The argument for prioritising national interests over global cooperation rests on a dangerously shortsighted understanding of how the modern world works. The defining challenges of the twenty-first century, from climate change and pandemic preparedness to nuclear proliferation and financial instability, are inherently transnational and cannot be solved by any nation acting alone. This essay contends that countries should not prioritise national interests over global cooperation, as the pursuit of narrow self-interest in an interconnected world ultimately undermines the very national welfare it claims to protect.
Climate change is a global crisis that cannot be solved through national action alone, making international cooperation an existential necessity rather than an optional ideal.
Explain
The atmosphere does not respect national borders, and greenhouse gas emissions from any single country affect every other country on Earth. No nation, regardless of how aggressively it pursues its own environmental policies, can prevent catastrophic climate change without coordinated global action to reduce emissions, protect forests, and transition to renewable energy. The prioritisation of short-term national economic interests, such as cheap fossil fuel energy, over global climate cooperation threatens the long-term survival and prosperity of all nations, including the one that defects from cooperation.
Example
The Paris Agreement of 2015, in which 196 nations committed to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, represented a landmark in global cooperation. However, when the United States, the world's second-largest emitter, withdrew from the agreement under President Trump in 2017, it undermined global mitigation efforts and emboldened other nations to weaken their own commitments. Singapore, despite contributing only 0.1% of global emissions, has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, recognising that as a low-lying island nation with no natural hinterland, it is existentially vulnerable to sea-level rise caused by other nations' emissions. Singapore's support for the ASEAN Framework on Carbon Neutrality and its introduction of a carbon tax in 2019, among the first in Southeast Asia, illustrate the recognition that national survival depends on global cooperation on climate.
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This demonstrates that countries should not prioritise national interests over global cooperation, as climate change is a collective-action problem where the pursuit of narrow national advantage leads to catastrophic outcomes for all, including the nation that prioritises its own short-term interests.
In a deeply interconnected global economy, the pursuit of narrow national interests through protectionism and economic nationalism ultimately harms the prosperity of the nation that pursues them.
Explain
Modern economies are so deeply integrated through global supply chains, capital flows, and trade relationships that attempts to prioritise national interests through protectionism, tariffs, and economic self-sufficiency invariably produce higher consumer prices, reduced competitiveness, and retaliatory measures that leave all parties worse off. The history of trade wars demonstrates that beggar-thy-neighbour policies do not enrich the nation that adopts them but instead trigger cycles of retaliation that contract the global economic pie to everyone's detriment.
Example
The US-China trade war initiated in 2018 saw the United States impose tariffs on over $360 billion worth of Chinese goods, ostensibly to protect American manufacturing jobs. However, a 2019 study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Columbia University, and Princeton University found that the tariffs cost American consumers and businesses approximately $3.2 billion per month in increased costs, while American farmers lost $27 billion in export sales due to Chinese retaliatory tariffs, requiring $28 billion in government bailouts. Singapore, as one of the world's most trade-dependent economies with a trade-to-GDP ratio exceeding 300%, would be devastated by a collapse in global economic cooperation. Its consistent advocacy for multilateral trade through the WTO, ASEAN, and bilateral FTAs reflects the understanding that for small, open economies, global cooperation is not a luxury but the foundation of national prosperity.
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This refutes the argument that countries should prioritise national interests over global cooperation, as in an interconnected economy, protectionism and economic nationalism are self-defeating strategies that harm the very citizens they claim to protect.
Transnational threats such as pandemics, terrorism, and cybercrime require coordinated global responses that no single nation can mount effectively on its own.
Explain
The defining security threats of the twenty-first century are not conventional military invasions that can be repelled at national borders but transnational phenomena that flow freely across them. Infectious diseases, terrorist networks, cyberattacks, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are challenges that require intelligence sharing, coordinated regulations, and joint operational responses among multiple nations. A nation that prioritises its own interests to the exclusion of international cooperation leaves itself and its citizens vulnerable to threats that do not stop at border checkpoints.
Example
The global response to terrorism after the September 11 attacks demonstrated the indispensability of international cooperation. The Financial Action Task Force coordinated anti-money laundering regulations across over 200 jurisdictions to cut off terrorist financing, while intelligence-sharing agreements between the Five Eyes alliance and other partners have prevented numerous planned attacks. Singapore's participation in international counter-terrorism cooperation, including the ASEAN Convention on Counter-Terrorism signed in 2007 and its intelligence-sharing arrangements with partners like the United States, Australia, and Malaysia, has been instrumental in disrupting terrorist plots targeting the region, including the foiled Jemaah Islamiyah plan to bomb foreign embassies in Singapore in 2001. No nation, regardless of the sophistication of its own security apparatus, could have disrupted these transnational networks without international cooperation.
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This demonstrates that countries should not prioritise national interests over global cooperation, as the transnational nature of modern security threats means that the safety of citizens depends fundamentally on the willingness of nations to cooperate across borders.
Counter-Argument
Proponents of national interest argue that governments have a primary democratic mandate to serve their own citizens, citing Singapore's swift bilateral vaccine procurement and strategic stockpiling during COVID-19 as evidence that decisive national action delivers results far more reliably than slow, underfunded multilateral mechanisms. Malaysia's rejection of IMF conditionality during the 1997 crisis, which produced faster recovery than neighbours that followed IMF prescriptions, further supports this view.
Rebuttal
Yet this logic collapses when applied to inherently transnational threats. No nation, however well-governed, can unilaterally prevent catastrophic climate change, counter transnational terrorist networks, or contain a global pandemic at its borders. Singapore's own counter-terrorism success against the foiled Jemaah Islamiyah embassy plot in 2001 depended critically on intelligence-sharing with the United States, Australia, and Malaysia. In an interconnected world, enlightened self-interest and global cooperation are not opposites but inseparable partners, and the pursuit of narrow national advantage on shared threats ultimately undermines the very national welfare it claims to protect.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the prioritisation of national interests over global cooperation is a self-defeating strategy in a world where the most pressing threats respect no borders. Climate change, pandemics, and financial crises require coordinated global responses that no nation, however powerful, can mount alone. The way forward lies not in retreating into nationalism but in reforming and strengthening the multilateral institutions that make collective action possible, recognising that in the modern world, enlightened self-interest and global cooperation are not opposites but inseparable partners.