Singapore, city-state in South-East Asia

The author examines the economic and political aspects of the complementary and conflictual relations of Singapore, the cosmopolitan but Chinese-dominated city-state, with its two large neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia and with the other developing countries of the region. The author argues that this provides a key to understanding the tensions and movements which have affected ASEAN since the 1960s. The nature of Singapore's functions in the region, combined with the lessons of history, help to define the remarkable cohesion and development of the city-state. The author has pursued his research in the Asia-Pacific region in banking and at the universities of Paris and Geneva. He was on the staff of the French embassy in Djakarta in 1984-5.