Singapore Unlikely Power - Final Thoughts on This Amazing Book

And just like that, we’re done. Over the past two weeks, we’ve walked through the entire story of Singapore - from ancient sea traders to a modern global powerhouse. Here are my final thoughts on John Curtis Perry’s “Singapore: Unlikely Power.”

What This Book Does Well

Perry’s biggest strength is his maritime angle. Most books about Singapore focus on Lee Kuan Yew and post-independence politics. Perry goes way deeper. He shows that Singapore’s story didn’t start in 1965 or even 1819 when Raffles showed up. It started thousands of years ago when the first sea traders realized this little island sat at the most important crossroads in Asia.

That perspective changes everything. When you understand that Singapore has always been about location and trade, the modern story makes so much more sense. The container port, the financial hub, the airline connections - it’s all just the latest version of what Singapore has been doing forever.

What Surprised Me Most

A few things really stuck with me:

The water problem. I had no idea Singapore was so dependent on Malaysia for water. The fact that they built an entire water recycling and desalination industry just to reduce that dependency is pretty incredible. When your survival depends on a neighbor who kicked you out, you find solutions fast.

The fall of Singapore in 1942. Churchill called it the worst disaster in British military history. And Perry makes a good case that the British basically sleepwalked into it. They were so convinced Singapore was a fortress that they never bothered to defend it properly from the north. The Japanese rode bicycles down the Malay peninsula and took the “impregnable fortress” in a week.

How recent it all is. Singapore became independent in 1965. That’s within living memory. In just 60 years, it went from a tiny, poor, kicked-out former colony to one of the richest countries per capita in the world. When you put it that way, it’s honestly hard to believe.

The trade-offs. Perry doesn’t shy away from the darker side. The political control, the media restrictions, the “out of bounds” markers on free speech. Singapore’s success came with a price. Whether that price was worth it depends on who you ask.

Who Should Read This Book

If you’re interested in any of these topics, this book is for you:

• History buffs - the maritime history alone is worth the read
• Business people - Singapore’s economic strategy is a masterclass in pragmatism
• Anyone interested in geopolitics - how a tiny country navigates between giants like China and the US
• Urban planning nerds - Singapore basically rebuilt itself from scratch in one generation
• People thinking about governance - the trade-off between freedom and stability is a real conversation here

What I’d Add

Perry’s book was published in 2017, so it misses some recent developments. The US-China tensions have only gotten more intense since then, and Singapore’s role as a neutral meeting ground has become even more important. The digital economy has also exploded, and Singapore has positioned itself as a tech hub in ways Perry could only hint at.

I’d also have liked more about everyday life. Perry is great at the big picture - trade routes, geopolitics, economic policy. But sometimes you want to know what it’s actually like to live there. What do regular Singaporeans think about all this?

The Big Takeaway

Here’s what I keep coming back to. Singapore’s story proves that geography isn’t destiny, but it matters a lot. Having the right location helped. But location alone didn’t build Singapore. Smart decisions, hard work, and a willingness to be ruthlessly practical did.

And maybe that’s the real lesson. You can’t control where you start. But you can control what you do with what you’ve got.

Book Details:

• Title: Singapore: Unlikely Power
• Author: John Curtis Perry
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2017
• ISBN: 9780190469504

Thanks for reading along. If you missed any posts in this series, you can find them all linked from the series introduction.

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