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
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... prospered, some did not. The agents of empire were also diverse, though their empires had similar characteristics: empires were run from metropolitan centres; the nationals of these centres were privileged; there was a subtle exchange ...
... prospered as established trading activities were supplemented by a globally significant primary product export business.42 The1941–45 period of Imperial Japanese control was confused with the occupation forces deploying repression and ...
... prospered; the innovative dynamic was not restricted to the domestic sphere; from the sixteenth century the system expanded; and for many cultures the impetus to radical change came with shifting patterns within the global system ...
... prospered and the British Empire disappeared. 34 in a 36 The French sphere comprised Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Commercial interests sought to block the expansion of the British and secure a route to southern China. A series of wars ...
... prospered (the Malay sultanates); others saw opportunity (migrant Chinese workers moving into the Nanyang); others saw their patterns of life destroyed (the Malay 'pirates' removed from Johor–Riau by the Royal Navy). Arguments for ...
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 |