SINGAPORE FOREIGN POLICY: POWER AND VULNERABILITY

Abstract

This paper seeks to establish the relationship between the possession of hard power and the notion of vulnerability for small states in the context of Singapore's foreign policy. The paper focuses on examining the period after the year 2000, which is well after the Republic had amassed high levels of hard power, for signs of continuity in Singapore's foreign policy which will indicates the continued salience of the notion of vulnerability in the Republic's external policies. In the process of identifying the signs of continuity the paper will also examine foreign policy for changes which may indicate otherwise, the notion of vulnerability indeed is mitigated by the possession of hard power. By exploring the arguments behind the persistence of vulnerability (and the counter arguments) as well as accounting for the changes in foreign policy in a manner not inconsistent with vulnerability, I will seek to argue that the possession of hard power does not mitigate the notion of vulnerability in the Republic's foreign policy