Abstract
Singapore became a sovereign nation, reluctantly, in August 1965 when it was ejected from the Federation of Malaysia; it had joined that union in 1963 after 144 years of British colonialism. This historical circumstance, and the country’s geographical location, have determined its foreign policy objectives and constraints ever since. As a small island city-state (currently with 2.6 million people situated on 622 square kilometers), Singapore is necessarily dependent for its survival not only on the world market but also on the surrounding Southeast Asian region — even for basic necessities such as food and water (which come mainly from Malaysia). Yet, with its predominantly (75 per cent) Chinese population, and a significant (15 per cent) Malay-Muslim minority, Singapore is ethnically and culturally different from the much larger but poorer neighboring countries of Malaysia and Indonesia, where Muslim Malays are the overwhelming majority.
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© 1990 David Wurfel and Bruce Burton
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Lim, L.Y.C. (1990). The Foreign Policy of Singapore. In: Wurfel, D., Burton, B. (eds) The Political Economy of Foreign Policy in Southeast Asia. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20813-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20813-5_8
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