Singapore operates in a dangerous world — a world where might is right, where the strong eat the weak, and where small countries are, all too often, expected to submit to a brutish order.

This is the harsh reality that Singapore diplomats have faced over the past 60 years of the nation’s independence. Yet, they have clung resolutely to the belief that Singapore has the right to determine its own future. Amid violence and volatility, generations of foreign service officers have steadfastly advanced Singapore’s interests on the global stage — while remaining clear-sighted about the nature of the world we live in.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has played a critical role in charting Singapore’s path to prosperity through crisis and conflict. Ironically, its work remains largely invisible to the public. Not So Little Red Dot: 60 Years of Singapore’s Diplomacy is an attempt to peel back the curtain on six decades of foreign policy, and the men and women who have made it possible. The book spotlights seven episodes largely from the 21st century that illustrate key tenets of Singapore’s approach:

• Russia-Ukraine War — Sovereignty

• Gaza Crisis — Humanitarian Aid

• Vaccines — Multilateralism

• Trump-Kim Summit — Honest Broker

• Points of Agreement with Malaysia — Neighbourliness

• ASEAN formation — Centrality of ASEAN

• COVID-19 evacuations — Consular Assistance

Each chapter offers an accessible reading experience by blending comics from veteran artist Cheah Sinann and prose written by a team of seven writers from The Nutgraf. The content and communications agency was behind bestselling titles such as The First Fools: B-Sides of Lee Kuan Yew’s A-Team. Not So Not So Little Red Dot: 60 Years of Singapore’s Diplomacy is authorised by the MFA to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

About the Author and Illustrator

Peh Shing Huei is a journalist and author who has written 13 books, including numerous No. 1 bestsellers in Singapore. They include Tall Order and Standing Tall, a pair of biographies on former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong; Neither Civil Nor Servant: The Philip Yeo Story; The Last Fools: The Eight Immortals of Lee Kuan Yew; The First Fools: B-Sides of Lee Kuan Yew’s A-Team; The Price of Being Fair; and Strictly Business: The Kwek Leng Beng Story. His maiden book, When the Party Ends: China’s Leaps and Stumbles after the Beijing Olympics, won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2016. It offers an on-the-ground look at China and was cited in The New York Times, the BBC, the Los Angeles Times, and South China Morning Post among others. His books have sold more than 100,000 copies. He was a news editor and China bureau chief at The Straits Times, and read politics at Columbia University in New York and the National University of Singapore.

Samantha Boh is a journalist and author who has written extensively on sustainability and science, covering topics that range from climate change to biomedical breakthroughs. Her works have appeared across multiple publications, including The Straits Times, South China Morning Post, and MyPaper. She was involved in the publication of the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment’s inaugural Zero Waste Masterplan in 2019. She is a co-author of four No. 1 bestselling titles: The Last Fools, The First Fools, The Price of Being Fair, and Lee Ek Tieng: The Green General of Lee Kuan Yew. She is a communications graduate from the Nanyang Technological University.

Pearl Lee is a journalist and author whose work on education, politics, and social issues has appeared in multiple publications, including The Straits Times and South China Morning Post, for more than a decade. She is the author of Ready, Set, Fiyah, a children’s picture book on the Youth Olympic Games. She is also a co-author of Boardroom Knockout: How Singapore’s Investor Watchdog Fights for Minority Shareholders, Behind the Mask: Our Healthcare Story, The First Fools, and One Havelock Square, which won the Best Hybrid Book prize at the Singapore Book Awards in 2021. She is a communications graduate from the Nanyang Technological University.

Aaron Low is a journalist and author who covers economics, finance, and business. He is the author and editor of three books, including two No. 1 bestsellers Behind The Banyan: Ho Kwon Ping on Building a Business Empire, and Boardroom Knockout. He has also co-authored bestselling titles The Last Fools and The First Fools. He writes on regional economics, business and politics in Asia, and was a deputy business editor at The Straits Times in Singapore, overseeing global financial markets. He is a graduate of the National University of Singapore.

Jaime Niam is a journalist and author who covers healthcare, arts and culture, and social affairs. She has co-authored several books, including chart-topper Boardroom Knockout and The First Fools. She is also part of the team behind The COVID-19 Chronicles: Singapore’s Journey from Pandemia to Peri-Pandemic Limbo with the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine; Behind the Mask with the Ministry of Health; and Save & Sound: 70 Years of CPF, the Central Provident Fund’s 70th anniversary publication. She is an English Literature graduate from the National University of Singapore.

Puah Rui Xian is a journalist and author who has co-written No. 1 bestsellers, including The First Fools and The Price of Being Fair. The latter charts the ups and downs of a local supermarket giant and spent 10 consecutive weeks on The Straits Times’ Bestseller List (non-fiction), winning the Popular Readers’ Choice Awards in 2023. She was also part of the editorial team behind the Ministry of Manpower’s first official anniversary book, Charting Our Path: 70 Years of Working Together and Lessons for Tomorrow. In 2022, her short film Teeter was released on Viddsee. She is an English Literature graduate from the National University of Singapore.

Derek Wong is a journalist and author who covers business and property news. He is a co-author of four No. 1 bestselling titles: The Last Fools, The First Fools, The Price of Being Fair, and Boardroom Knockout. He was also part of the team that documented Singapore’s COVID-19 pandemic journey in Behind The Mask. He previously reported at The Straits Times, where he covered property news, and was also a sub-editor and breaking news reporter. He is a political science graduate from the National University of Singapore.

Cheah Sinann is a former editorial cartoonist with The Straits Times, where he drew a daily cartoon strip called The House of Lim for close to 10 years, from the 1980s to the 1990s. Today, his daily strip titled Budi and Saltie appears in Brunei’s main daily, The Borneo Bulletin. The cartoon is about local wildlife and the environment, and was also published in The New Straits Times in Malaysia during the 2000s. As an illustrator, Cheah – or Sinann to his friends – has worked with renowned authors like Michael Chiang and Felix Cheong. In recent years, he has delved into graphic novels, publishing The Bicycle, a book on the Japanese Occupation in Singapore, in 2014. It was followed by Terumbu and Goh Keng Swee: A Singaporean for All Seasons, which were published in 2018 and 2023 respectively.