Diplomacy: A Singapore Experience

by S. Jayakumar

After more than four decades of independence, Singapore has built up a significant corpus of norms, principles and experiences that form the bedrock of its foreign policy. Many of these milestone events and watershed moments in MFA's history are known only to a handful of ministers and officials. There is a need to always remember the fundamentals of our key foreign policy interests. In Diplomacy: A Singapore Experience, Prof S Jayakumar records his reflections on selected episodes and events where he was involved as Minister or as Permanent Representative to the UN. They illustrate how Singapore created diplomatic and economic space for itself, and its proactive diplomacy in the UN and ASEAN. The author also recounts Singapore's responses to moves by other countries that were inimical to its national interests, resolving disputes in an amicable manner through third party settlement, now an important feature of Singapore's foreign policy. Included are episodes in bilateral relations with Malaysia, Indonesia and China which demonstrate that such relations must be on the basis of equals respecting each other's sovereign status, and also in compliance with international law and international agreements.

Genres: History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Shunmugam Jayakumar, often known as S. Jayakumar, is a former Singaporean politician, lawyer and diplomat. He is of Indian Tamil ancestry.

A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he previously served as Singapore's Senior Minister in the Cabinet and the Co-ordinating Minister for National Security from 2009 to 2011, Deputy Prime Minister from 2004 to 2009, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 2004, Minister for Home Affairs from 1988 to 1994, Minister for Law from 1988 to 2008, and Minister for Labour from 1984 to 1985.

He was a member of parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bedok within the East Coast Group Representation Constituency. In May 2011 he retired from politics due to health reasons.

Reviews

[Matias Singers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of the book can get a bit repetitive with day-to-day MFA dealings, but the interesting anecdotes and a behind-the-scenes description of key international events more than make up for the duller parts.

I particularly enjoyed the last section on bilateral relations with Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. I highly recommend getting the updated 2019 edition as it provides excellent commentary on more recent developments (i.e., Trump's presidency, Dr. M's watershed election in 2018)

[Shawn Yip · Rating 4 out of 5]

A window into the undercurrents of our foreign policy. Was quite interesting to be given diplomatic perspectives on SG’s legalistic run-ins - Flor Contemplacion, Johannes Van Damme and Michael Fay. Would’ve appreciated a deeper interrogation of the principle but that isn’t the focus of the book so it’s fine. Being able to observe Jayakumar’s intricate policy & diplomatic process was also pretty enthralling. Would’ve liked to see more thoughts on the 1987 “Marxist Conspiracy”, and definitely more details behind our chosen response to China in 2004. “We decided that our best response was to expose China’s bullying”, sadly doesn’t cut it. Otherwise, an excellent read that details concisely the foreign policy challenges that we’ve faced, and our responses to them.

[Xian · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not bad or completely uninformative, but it can get dull, repetitive, simplistic, or even condescending at times. It's not the insightful exploration of the inner workings of Singaporean diplomacy I was expecting, but it does serve as a general-audience-friendly introduction to some of Singapore's principles in handling international relations (which Jayakumar has gone to great lengths to reiterate.)

After 283 pages, I came away knowing the following, and not much more:
1. Singapore is a small nation that cannot face off other nations, so it seeks to maintain the rule of international law in international relations to protect itself
2. It is of paramount importance for Singapore to retain international credibility by maintaining its completely reasonable positions and not bowing to pressure from other nations
3. Singapore seeks to promote multinational bodies bound by the rule of law, to leverage influence for its own interests

It's hard not to remember when it's repeated at least once every chapter, but unfortunately there's little other substance. The incidents touched upon ultimately buttress these principles, and there's little attempt at a nuanced view or consideration of issues from opposing sides. (Other nations seem to be invariably painted as unreasonable, bound by local political constraints, and ultimately in the wrong, although a number of other foreign ministers and diplomats that Jayakumar knows personally get pretty good treatment.)

Well, there's one thing else: it seems that Singapore's foreign affairs of the last 40 years seem to have been dominated by a small cast, comprising mainly Tommy Koh, Bilahari Kausikan, Kishore Mahbubani, and Jayakumar himself.

[Sandeep Bhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diplomacy is the experience of S Jayakumar in the bureaucracy of Foreign affairs of Singapore. The author repeatedly uses the keyword to describe Diplomatic policy to be shaped by referring to Singapore as a small country. It is evident by how Singapore handled the UN voting on key issues, the importance of FTA with the US and JP and taking the collaborative effort with ASEAN. The author describes in detail the relationship of Malaysia and Indonesia with Singapore being the nearest neighbours. The author also describes incidents which led to Singapore maintaining their stands with issues related to Francisco Vasquez, Michael Fay, Johannes Van Damme, Flor Contemplation and Zimmerman case. A separate chapter has been dedicated to relations with Taiwan while following the One China policy. The book gives drivers view of the Singapore foreign relations traffic and plays a key role in understanding as Dr Mahathir referred to as The Small Red Dot.

[Godfrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to understand the diplomatic context of Singapore. It outlines the motivation, rationale, and principles of Singapore when dealing with international ties in a succinct manner.

At the same time, the book also offers a glimpse of how Singapore remains relevant as a global Singapore despite its size. "punching" above its weight as the book says.

From conference to bilateral and multilateral relationships, the book shows how Singapore has always been proactive in ensuring its relevancy on the global stage despite the geographic limitations. Truly inspiring.

[Harold · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read regarding how Singapore built its reputation through diplomacy and its many challenges throughout the years. With valuable updates and perspectives in the form of post scripts from one of Singapore’s erudite civil servants. Quite an interesting read to see the ins and outs of government work and thoughts from S Jayakumar.

[Luke Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other than the more mundane day-to-day operations of the Foreign Affairs ministry, the author’s recount of the diplomatic disputes that unravelled was the real star of the book, allowing for a first hand insight into the solutions adopted to resolve the crisis.

[Melvyn Foo · Rating 4 out of 5]

More national education than exposition. But the examples were well-chosen and illustrated the application of otherwise fundamental foreign policy principles that sometimes get tautly strung amidst a complex neighborhood and world.

[ARC · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and easy read about early days of Diplomacy for Singapore. Starts off a little dry about ASEAN’s early days but reaches an exciting peak with sharings of actual diplomatic encounters between Singapore and Malaysia / Indonesia / China.

[Laurent De Serres Berard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very high level book, light and simply written but lacking depth or critical analysis. As someone said, it sound more like national education than a analytic or memoir with lessons-learned book.

The stated purpose of this book by this former Foreign Minister of Singapore is to inform and prepare Singaporean diplomats, but it seem to be more a book explaining rationale of Singapore's positions on certain diplomatic situations to the grand public. All through out the book and for every of those cases, Jayakumar emphasize why Singapore's position is not only right but also righteous compared to some behaviors of other countries. This give more a more nationalistic tone to the book, rather than an objective analysis of Singapore diplomacy, despite how it attempt to present itself. It present Singapore's action in each cases as justified, without mistakes or much lessons learned except the Singapore values and principles already known.

The content of the book stay interesting maybe for those who want to understand the core principles and rationality of Singapore's diplomacy, driving its foreign and national interest ( Singapore as small power, observance of international law and reliance on multilateral institutions, free trade and rule-based system, identity of Singapore as multiracial and justice based country...). The chapters on the UN campaign and influence, and on challenges with neighbors were interesting.

The writing of the book is good, light, simple and straight to the point, as a public servant would write, which make it pleasant to read. The structure is lacking, as some names or acronyms are defined later after being presented a first time, or some elements are introduced after already having been discussed in previous chapters. This give an impressions that the book was written in independent writing blocks and then put together, adding only a few quick references between chapters.

[WR · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book, sharp writing. Highlights the foreign policy challenges facing Singapore as a small sovereign state, complicated by its location. Fortituous timing to read it in one sitting, on Singapore's 46th National Day!

[Daniel Oon Yong Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of day to day MFA challenges that were listed out. But very little take away for the reader.

[Elias · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in simple and clear prose, with a few interesting tidbits on the challenges that Singapore faces in global diplomacy.