Defending the Lion City: The armed forces of Singapore

(Paperback)

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Singapore is at the heart of the Muslim malay world, yet 78 per cent of its population is ethnically Chinese. The prosperous city-state depends on outside sources for virtually all its water and food; it has no access to the high seas, on which it depends for 85 per cent of its trade, except for through its neighbours' waters. Physically linked to Malaysia by a causeway and a bridge, only 20 kilometres of sea separate Singapore from the nearest Indonesian territory. Surrounded by larger, more populous nations, Singapore has been acutely aware of its vulnerability since separating from the Malaysian federation in 1965. The government has met its defence needs with characteristic determination, building powerful, well-equpped and highly trained armed forces, based on a relatively small professional core and much larger numbrs of conscript and reservist citizen soldiers. This study of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) provides a comprehensive assessment of Singapore's impressive military capability and the strategic outlook and policies which have shaped it. The book analyses the roles, strucutre, training and logistic arrangements of each branch of the SAF - army, air force and navy - as well as moves to enhance combined arms and joint service capabilities. It investigates Singapore's growing military co-operation with other armed forces in the region - and further afield - and assesses the SAF's personnel policies, the role of SAF officers in politics and civilian administration, and Singapore's burgeoning defence-industrial capability. While not denying the SAF's strengths, the book asks the question: what are the potential weaknesses in Singapore's defence posture which could threaten this stable city-state in a potentially unpredicatable region

Author Bio

Tim Huxley is Director of the Centre for South-East Asian Studies at the University of Hull, England. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies in London, and was a Fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore during the 1980s. He has written extensively on Southeast Asian politics and international relations, specialising in security and defence issues. His recent publications include Insecurity in the ASEAN Region (1993) and Arming East Asia (IISS Adelphi Paper 329, 1999).