Defence and Decolonisation in South-East Asia: Britain, Malaya and Singapore 1941-1967

This book explains why British defense policy and practice emerged as it did in the period 1941-67, by looking at the overlapping of colonial, military, economic and Cold War factors in the area. Its main focus is on the 1950s and the decolonization era, but it argues that the plans and conditions of this period can only be understood by tracing them back to their origins in the fall of Singapore. Also, it shows how decolonization was shaped not just by British aims, but by the way communism, communalism and nationalism facilitated and frustrated these.

Karl Hack lecturers in History at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.