"Singapore’s ‘encirclement complex’ is informed in the first instance by its material reality. It is a small, geographically confined state, lacking in strategic depth, with a mainly ethnic-Chinese identity in a predominantly Malay-Muslim region, “wedged between the sea and airspace of two larger neighbours with which [it] has never been politically at ease.” Furthermore, Singapore lacks a significant domestic market, and is almost totally dependent on external sources for capital, technology and, most importantly, raw materials – including food and drinking water. Accordingly, the government of Singapore has never taken the city-state’s survival for granted."
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