Singapore’s Foreign Policy Beliefs and the Framing of Realist Strategy.

This paper aims to uncover the nuances of Singaporean foreign policy?s theoretical contributions to a local variant of realism in international relations, as sourced from the words and deeds of the Republic?s elite foreign policy-makers. The realist assumption has previously served to close off possibilities for innovative research into the somewhat chameleon-like changes to the Republic?s external relations, particularly since the end of the Cold War. Furthermore, pinioning Singapore within realism has meant that questions of hegemonic socialisation of ideas matter in analysing foreign policy in a globalizing era of informational scrutiny. It behoves the scholar to pose questions to ideological verities of policy doctrines: from where did it originate? What are its tenets? How is it chosen over other alternatives? The conclusion however hopes to reveal that ?Singaporean realism? is less faithful to classical realist precepts than is originally believed by pre-existing scholarship. The theory and praxis of Singaporean foreign policy is likely to be reconciled in terms of the oxymoronic such as ?practical idealism? and ?weak state, soft power?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]