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Beware the crocodile: The challenge for small states
Hard power politics was centre stage at Davos. But smaller players are not without agency in pushing back against the notion that “might makes right”.
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In the brutal world of geopolitics, great powers are like crocodiles and small states need to be very careful even when they appear to smile.
PHOTO: AFP
Danny Quah and Irene Ng
A great power is like a crocodile: it can bring danger even as it looks benign. As Singapore’s first foreign minister S. Rajaratnam put it, when the crocodile shows its teeth, “one is never quite sure whether it is smiling or baring its teeth”.
A statesman who had seen a lot of big teeth in his time, Mr Rajaratnam had no illusions about the brutal nature of great power politics.
