Singapore-Malaysia defence relations : limited cooperation in late modernity

Abstract

With war in the Asia-Pacific unlikely, Singapore and Malaysia have both forged deeper bi-lateral defence cooperation arrangements with other countries within ASEAN. The dissertation addresses the conundrum: why have Singapore and Malaysia not developed deeper bilateral defence cooperation? The dissertation will argue that the Singaporean leadership's concern for security above all else since 1965, along with both Singapore and Malaysia's propensity to exploit their military offensive advantages in geography and technology have contributed to mistrust and insecurity between the countries that limits deeper defence cooperation between them at present, and quite likely, in the future too. Robert Jervis's 1978 work, "Cooperation under the Security Dilemma" will be used as an overarching theoretical framework supporting the main arguments made in the dissertation.