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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... British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Preston, P. W. (Peter Wallace), 1949Singapore in the global system ...
... the British Empire, where global trading interests required bases. The process drew in and remade existing subregional polities with multiple agents involved in complex exchanges. The shifting economics and politics of the colonial era ...
... the British trading empire; the South Asian sphere; the Malay sphere of the archipelago; and the Chinesecentred trading sphere of the Nanyang. These flows of practice/ideas enfolded Singapore island. Singapore island has been home to a ...
... British incursions into Asia from the seventeenth century were centred on the South Asian sub-continent, running ... The British Empire came to comprise both formally colonized territories and a wide arc of informal empire12 holdings ...
... the British Empire29 underscored the importance of the region. The Indian sub-continent was the key possession. The Company slowly infiltrated the patchwork of sub-continental princely states: trade links, military alliances, co-options ...
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 |