Singapore's Role In The Process Of Regional Integration In Southeast Asia

Since 1967, the founding of the Association of Southeast Asian nations, much progress has been made. The ASEAN has become an organization of regional integration, including security, culture, science and technology, which focus on economic integration in Southeast Asia. Singapore is a nation with small land, dense population and scarce resources, which lacks strategic depth. Vulnerability is one of the basic attributes of this small country. The ASEAN has brought assurance to Singapore that lacks sense of security, greatly easing its vulnerability. Singapore has often presented thoughts, advices and proposals to the ASEAN, many of which are related to the direction of major acts and decisions. What role does Singapore play in the development of the ASEAN and how? What impels Singapore to promote the development of the ASEAN? When taking effect in the development of the ASEAN, what difficulties and obstacles is Singapore facing? The discussion on these issues is of great significance.This article mainly involves in document analysis, history analysis and case analysis, that is, to form a scientific cognition of the role Singapore plays in the ASEAN, through collecting, identifying, sorting and studying the relevant literature of Singapore -ASEAN relation. Combined with history analysis, the role Singapore plays in ASEAN's development is considered as continuous. Besides, many cases of Singapore's role in the ASEAN are analyzed in the paper.This article is divided into three parts:in the first part, the background of the founding of the ASEAN and the national conditions of Singapore are briefly introduced. In the second part, the difficult external environment for Singapore in the early days are discussed. In the third part, which is the core part of the whole paper, Singapore's role in the ASEAN is discussed. There are four stages of Singapore's role in the ASEAN:first, from the founding of the ASEAN to the mid 1970s; second, from the second half of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s; third, from the end of the Cold War to the 97 Financial Crisis; forth, from the 97 Financial Crisis till today. Based on these four stages, Singapore's role in the ASEAN can be summarized into the statement:from an active participant to a low profile leader.