A Study On Singapore's Diplomacy Of Balancing Great Powers After The Cold War

In recent years,the diplomacy of small countries has become an important issue in the study of international politics,and Singapore's Diplomacy of Balancing Great Powers also becomes a hot topic in academic circles.Singapore formulated a diplomatic strategy of"balancing great powers" after independence.After the Cold War,Singapore's Diplomacy of Balancing Great Powers is maturing,it not only builds a dynamic and balanced relationship between China,the US and Japan in the Southeast Asia,but also win a living space for Singapore,and as a small state,Singapore shows asymmetric influence with its identity.Then,as a small state,why does Singapore implement Diplomacy of Balancing Great Powers?According to "the Theory of Balance of Power",Singapore should balance the most powerful state in the region,but why does Singapore gets closer to the US?This paper draws on the Balance of Threat Theory:it regards small states as important actors in the international system,and believes that the states always tend to league to balance the most threatening state in the region.Power and cognition are the main standard for a country to judge the threat of other countries.On this basis,this paper extracts three variables for analyzing the small state's Diplomacy of Balancing Great Powers:the identity of small states,the power of structure and the cognition of elites.In detail,the identity of a small state is the self-positioning of a small state's diplomacy,the power structure is the external environment of a small state's diplomacy,and the cognition of the elite is the small states leaders' threat cognition.Based on the above theoretical framework,this paper believes that the implementation of Diplomacy of Balancing Great Powers of Singapore after the Cold War is the result of the combined effect of the three variables.From the perspective of the identity of small state,Singapore is a small but strong state,the implementation of Diplomacy of Balancing Great Powers is not only to ease the security vulnerabilities of small states,but also the unique geographical location and superior national governance provide it with internal advantages;From the perspective of power structure,the rise of ASEAN and the unbreakable relationship between big powers in Southeast Asia providean external environment for Singapore;From the perspective ofthe cognition of elites,Singapore's decision-maker's cognition determines the balanced rule directly.The influence of Diplomacy of Balancing Great Powers is not limited to Singapore but also spilled over to the region.On the one hand,it guarantees Singapore's sovereignty and security,and promotes the development of Singapore's economy,also,it strengthens Singapore's dependence on the United States.On the other hand,On the other hand,it's assistor for the US to pivot to the Asia-Pacific,it also plays an important role in promoting the development of multi-polarization in East Asia,and promotes the establishment of cooperative mechanisms in East Asia.