Southeast Asia. Safe for decolonization: The Eisenhower administration, Britain, and Singapore. By S.R. Joey Long. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2011. Pp. xviii + 248. Maps, Bibliography, Index.

Abstract

Safe for decolonization: The Eisenhower administration, Britain, and Singapore By S.R. JOEY LONG Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2011. Pp. xviii + 248. Maps, Bibliography, Index. Joey Long presents a very solid study, well researched, insightful, fair and articulate. Long's work will interest and benefit anyone curious about the interplay between decolonisation, the Cold War, great power foreign policy and local agency in Southeast Asia. Long brings to bear, through diligent work in multiple archives and a sound grasp of existing literature, a rare combination: an informed understanding of both American foreign policy in Southeast Asia during the Cold War and the complexities with which it engaged both allied and local agendas. He does not make the all-too-common error of reducing local agency, in this case Singapore--through Singaporeans in general and political leaders in particular--to a supporting role in a discussion of British-American Cold War discourse. Nor does he subscribe to the still too common and lazy view that political decolonisation in the region was a straightforward process of oppositional politics, first towards a declining European overlord, then to the emerging American assertiveness. Long rightly argues that it was just not that simple. This book examines why, how and to what end the Eisenhower administration became involved in political change in Singapore, with particular reference to the Cold War. In so doing, Long displays commendable balance in judgement and does not subscribe to any of the ideological sacred cows that dot the field. Critical when the evidence so indicates, particularly regarding the Eisenhower administration's efforts to use covert intelligence and political operations to pursue its goals--or perhaps chase its ghosts--in a volatile Singapore, Long also gives credit where credit is due. This stems in part from his ability to lift his analytical gaze beyond the traditional confines of strategic problems and government-to-government intercourse, as catalogued so methodically in the FO371 and RG59 file series. Long's chapter on American cultural diplomacy brings out most strongly his sure grasp of both what made Singaporeans receptive to such approaches and how this fit into the larger policy picture. This chapter alone serves as a valuable response to a literature too ready to essentialise American Cold War practices in the Afro-Asian world. Singapore had particular characteristics that made it important to American Cold War priorities, receptive to some American influences, fractious when confronted by others. The driving theme in Long's study is how the British, Americans and Singaporeans sought to fill the 'political space' being opened up by the larger process of Britain's contraction as a global power. …