Historical analysis of Tun Abdul Razak’s grand strategy (1970-1976): A phenomenological approach

This research aimed to explore the national security strategy used by Tun Abdul Razak, the Second Prime Minister of Malaysia by applying the concept of grand strategy and theory of strategic culture. Scholarly discourses in international relations had highlighted more on the conceptualisation of security from the Western’s perspective using the realism theory. The discussions emphasised more
on the material sources and power capabilities in managing the national security and handling threats. Thus, the analysis was bias towards Third World, which obviously
lack in resources with a limited power capability. Therefore, a suitable concept and theory like grand strategy and strategic culture are approriate in analysing on how Malaysia under the leadership of Tun Abdul Razak managed to administer national security from internal and external threats. Despite his prominent contributions in Malaysian history, there is a gap in literature discussing the conceptualisation of security during his premiership using the concept of grand strategy and theory of strategic culture. Therefore, three specific research objectives were formulated, first, to categorise a combination of aspects of state’s resources and capabilities used by Tun Abdul Razak in crafting the grand strategy (1970-1976). Second, to identify the sources of strategic culture that influence Tun Abdul Razak in crafting the grand strategy and third, to construct a framework of Tun Abdul Razak’s grand strategy
(1970-1976). In order to obtain accurate historical facts, qualitative methodology using the phenomenological approach was used in gathering the primary research data from the first person point of view. The research sampling – key informants were identified based on the purposeful sampling, in which their lived experience working during Tun Abdul Razak’s premiership is relevant to the study. Their lived
experience were analysed together with the primary achives documents to enhance the research findings. Overall, the research findings had successfully provided answers for the formulated research objectives. There are seven themes emerged in Tun Abdul Razak’s grand strategy. These include the aspects of economic, political, societal and cultural values, diplomacy, legislative and enforcements, military:
security council and area and civil service. Meanwhile, five themes emerged signified the sources of strategic culture in the design of Tun Abdul Razak’s grand strategy that includes patterns of economy and society: imbalance economy and
pluralistic society, political culture: United Malays Organisation Organisation and Barisan Nasional, elites: idiosyncrasy of Tun Abdul Razak, historical experiences:
communists’s aggressions and racial riot and geographical circumstances: small states with a limited resources. Finally for the third objective, the research constructed a Framework of Tun Abdul Razak's Grand Strategy (1970-1976) based on the lived experience of research sampling by applying the concept of grand strategy and theory of strategic culture. Although the outcomes captured from the
lived experience of key informants that was performed with some limitations and constraints, they lend some novel foundations to comprehend the grand strategy utilised in managing national security from Malaysian's perspective through its past leader, the late Tun Abdul Razak.