Abstract

The dissertation examines the further evolution and development of Malaysia's foreign policy during the first period of the Mahathir administration between 1981 to 1986. It argues the case that Malaysia's external behavior during the period clearly exhibits a mixed pattern of continuity and change and that while both patterns have made positive contributions towards the pursuit of Malaysia's core-value interests abroad, the signs of change that have occurred in certain selected issue areas have also attracted negative feedbacks from within the region and beyond. ;To test the validity of these assumptions, the study uses the comprehensive approach to examine the four key pillars of Malaysia's foreign policy behavior between 1981-1986 namely, the dimensions of defence and security, political-diplomatic, international trade and economics and Malaysia's Islamic diplomacy. Here behavior in the four selected issue-areas of Anglo-Malaysian relations, ties with the Commonwealth, the "Look-East" diplomacy and the Antarctica initiative were similarly analysed for the same purpose. ;In its findings, the dissertation argues that while the general pattern of continuity is rooted in the combined pressures of both internal and external variables on the policy-making process, the preponderance of one over the other varies with differing issue-areas. Where changes are observable, as in the four issue areas of Malaysia's ties with Great Britain, the Commonwealth, Japan and South Korea, and its pursuit of the Antarctica issue, the study concludes that this is due to the increased "leadership" input into the nation's foreign policy-making process. The thesis also maintained that while a positive outcome of the latter has been the emergence of a more vibrant foreign policy under Mahathir's leadership, the phenomenon has also caused, on the negative side, unintended misperceptions of Malaysia's policy objectives in these four areas. The resulting feedbacks were to eventually compel Malaysia to clarify, modify, down-play or even eventually to terminate some of these policy initiatives during the latter part of the eighties