Singapore in the Global System: Relationship, Structure and ChangeThis book tracks the phases of Singapore’s economic and political development, arguing that its success was always dependent upon the territories links with the surrounding region and the wider global system, and suggests that managing these links today will be the key to the country’s future. Singapore has followed a distinctive historical development trajectory. It was one of a number of cities which provided bases for the expansion of the British empire in the East. But the Pacific War provided local elites with their chance to secure independence. In Singapore the elite disciplined and mobilized their population and built successfully on their colonial inheritance. Today, the city-state prospers in the context of its regional and global networks, and sustaining and nurturing these are the keys to its future. But there are clouds on the elite’s horizons; domestically, the population is restive with inequality, migration and surplus-repression causing concern; and internationally, the strategy of constructing a business-hub economy is being widely copied and both Hong Kong and Shanghai are significant competitors. This book discusses these issues and argues that although success is likely to characterize Singapore’s future, the elite will have to address these significant domestic and international problems. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 38
... (ASEAN), East Asia and the global trading sphere – which the elite must manage as they plot a route to the future. The current polity is not separate from the modern world; it is firmly and deeply lodged within that world. The present ...
... ASEAN brings up the rear of the formation); and lately, nationalism has been reasserted (ideas of a normal nation, rearmament and political conflict with China). The Chinese look to rapid growth, nationalist assertion and deepening ...
... ASEAN. It was begun in 1967 with six members and by 1999 had ten member countries covering the whole of Southeast Asia. 56 The organization was dedicated to stability and economic growth, and whilst it has had a mixed record in respect ...
... ASEAN organization has provided a framework within which countries have defined themselves and their region. It has been a vehicle for the establishment of identities in the context of dissolving colonial empires.58 After the confusions ...
... (ASEAN), regional (East Asia, centred on Japan) and thereafter global. This is the given pattern of structural circumstances to which agents must necessarily respond. It may be said that these are old problems. It might also be said that ...
Contents
Impact and reply 40 | |
General crisis 58 | |
New trajectories 79 | |
Locating Singapore 100 | |
Trading cities 160 | |
Unfolding trajectories 197 | |
Notes 216 | |
Bibliography 263 | |
Index 275 | |
Other editions - View all
Singapore in the Global System: Relationship, Structure and Change Peter Preston Limited preview - 2007 |
Singapore in the Global System: Relationship, Structure and Change Peter Wallace Preston No preview available - 2007 |