The fact that Singapore survived and thrived is less a miracle of free market economics than a triumph of selfish geopolitics as Henry Kissinger’s latest book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, makes eloquently clear. The island nation experienced explosive economic growth in the face of geopolitical insecurity—a feat that is increasingly relevant today as great power competition intrudes on the functioning of the global economy.
Kissinger’s nineteenth book profiles six leaders across six chapters and includes stories from the ninety-nine-year-old former secretary of state’s encounters with each of them. His chapter on Lee Kuan Yew, the Singaporean statesman who died in 2015, is the book’s most engaging and provocative effort. Historian Margaret MacMillan in the Financial Times and Adm. James Stavridis in the Wall Street Journal both praise Kissinger’s lively portrayal of Lee, the father of independent Singapore. […]
In Kissinger’s eyes, one of Lee’s greatest economic accomplishments was “closely linking individual economic prosperity to the state’s well-being.” Lee did this by establishing “parapolitical institutions,” a term used to refer to Singapore’s town councils and community centers, renowned for their responsiveness to citizens’ everyday economic well-being. Temasek, the Singaporean public-private investment vehicle, could be considered another of these “parapolitical institutions.” Lee’s keen geopolitical sense meant that “he understood that the global balance of power was a product not only of anonymous forces but of living political entities,” which needed support and nurturing. Läs artikel
Läs även presentation på den här sajten av Kissingers bok.