Singapore’s role in city diplomacy: lessons from its leadership in developing the ASEAN Smart Cities Network

As a city-state, Singapore occupies a dual identity that enables it to engage in international diplomacy beyond the traditional state level. It has emerged as a prominent actor in city-to-city diplomacy, particularly through its leadership during its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) chairmanship in 2018, when it launched the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) to provide the regional organisation with an avenue to engage with its member states’ localities. This paper explores how Singapore leverages city diplomacy as a strategic tool to project influence, secure economic benefits, and shape norms of urban governance in Southeast Asia. Using geographic, urban development, and international relations lenses, this article highlights how urban planning imaginaries, infrastructure-led regionalism, and technocratic planning cultures shape both the opportunities and limitations of Singapore’s city diplomacy. The article concludes with reflections on the implications for Southeast Asia’s alternative regional architecture and the future of subnational diplomacy amid the waxing and waning effectiveness of state-led responses to global challenges such as climate change, poverty alleviation, and digital infrastructure provision. A broader inquiry will be undertaken to explore how Singapore’s influence through the ASCN model could potentially be further analysed to define diplomacy in a post-Western world order.