Military Cooperation between Thailand and Singapore: Case Study of Bilateral Military Exercises between Thailand and Singapore

Abstract

This research paper is written to study about the military cooperation between Thailand and Singapore and uses the Bilateral Military Exercises as the case study. This study uses Liberalism and Interdependence framework to study with the hypothesis that the two countries benefit from the exercises. The research asks: 1) How the bilateral military exercises between two countries developed and 2) How the bilateral military exercises represent the strategic relations between Thailand and Singapore.

The research finds that bilateral military exercises between two countries are the result from the military cooperation between both countries. This military cooperation is result from many factors - the good diplomatic relation between two countries, both countries’ the military developments, the military diplomacy of Singapore, change of world geopolitics after Cold War, the good relations between both countries and the United States and the cooperation and relations between both countries and Malaysia. The reason why both countries has the military cooperation is the same as the Liberalism, Interdependence framework used in this research which implies that both countries benefit from the cooperation. Moreover, this research also finds that Realism framework can also be applied with this case study since both countries have similar geopolitical issues, so both countries began to have military cooperation.