ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Singapore's foreign policy in its various forms, from the type of study to the issue areas involved, especially in terms of their focus, ideological underpinnings and the arena where policy is executed. The literature on international relations theory in the post-Second World War period was dominated by the realist school. The creation of a large number of newly independent states in Asia and Africa in the 1950s and 1960s also provided greater variety and breadth to the international political system. Structural and institutional derivatives that emphasized the equal importance of non-state actors in international relations were spawned. The realist imprint on the study of international relations is therefore inescapable, whether it is in terms of power configurations or the centrality of the state in international relations. Realist conceptions of state power and potential are naturally disadvantageous to small states that begin with a small size and population base.
