ABSTRACT
Within the ASEAN cooperative framework, member countries deliberate and agree on a number of initiatives critical to the region, offer financial and other resources which allow such initiatives to take root and blossom, and take turns to host meetings that support the socio-economic and political development efforts. This collaborative and collective orientation, long recognized as the hallmark of ASEAN’s success, makes it important to understand the uniqueness of a member country’s contribution. The focus of this chapter is thus on an examination which allows us to see the unique or the comparative advantage of Singapore’s contributions. To understand Singapore’s role in ASEAN, we should look at the relationship between a country’s attributes and the distinct ways in which it relates to ASEAN. This relationship can be undertaken in two broad ways. The first is to look at how Singapore’s historically derived attributes of being a small state as well as a port city shape its orientation towards the region and beyond. This first point allows the reader to understand how historical and structural features of the country shape its relationship with the rest of the world. The second look involves an understanding of the developmental features of Singapore as a city state from which we can deduce a comparative advantage in terms of the nature of contributions.
