Located at the southern point of the Malay peninsula, Singapore is an island city-state, which gained independence as a sovereign nation-state in 1965. With a current population size of 4.5 million (of which only 70 percent are citizens) and a land area of about 700 square kilometers (of which 10 percent is derived from reclamation), Singapore—with a population density of over 6,000 people per square kilometer—is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Comprising a majority Chinese population (75.2 percent), the city-state is also home to substantial minority ethnic groups (Malays, 13.6 percent, and Indians, 8.8 percent) as well as a broad diversity of other ethnic, language, and nationality groups (officially classified as Others, 2.2 percent). In the postindependence years, Singapore has ...