The Rise of China and India: Geo-Political Narratives from the Singapore Perspective (Report‪)‬

Theoretical frameworks have often defined the debates in the field of international relations (IR). Two major IR theories are realism and idealism. Realism is associated with the exercise of power by states and places overwhelming premium on the concept of power which is a measure of the influence of a state. Idealism emphasises the workings of international laws and regimes, morality as well as international institutions as factors of constraint on the exercise of raw power. Singapore does not fit into these two major frameworks perfectly. If the influence of a state is proportional to power, then Singapore has far more influence than its size permits. This is reflected by many prominent examples, among which is the role of Singapore diplomacy in chairing the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Law of the Sea by one of the persons studied in this article.