By:
Jonathan Harman
Since taking office in May of last year, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has carried out sweeping military reforms. However, alongside these changes, it may be time for the Taiwanese government to refocus on retention and promotion among its small cohort of US service academy-trained officers—an issue that Taiwan’s Control Yuan (監察院) briefly investigated in 2023. Doing so will foster military leaders who are better prepared to implement Lai’s defense reforms, advance modern military doctrine, and integrate with US military forces—abilities that could help alleviate some of the Pentagon’s operational concerns over a potential US intervention in a Taiwan contingency. To raise retention and promotion, however, the government will need to increase pay and implement a separate accelerated promotion pipeline.
By:
Yuchen Lee
Non-state actors now play a significant role in international relations, and this undoubtedly includes cities. City diplomacy, a form of subnational diplomacy, is defined as “the conduct of external relations undertaken by official representatives of cities with other actors, particularly other cities, nation-states, NGOs, and corporations.” Due to intensive political pressure from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan experiences great difficulties in maintaining its diplomatic presence on the international stage, let alone forging formal relations with other countries. City diplomacy offers Taiwan a strategic solution to stay in the game, by creating a subnational platform that allows foreign countries to circumvent the concerns of formally recognizing Taiwan’s statehood. Such efforts by the city of Kaohsiung provide a great example as to why Taiwan should leverage city diplomacy to advance its foreign policy goals.
By:
Benjamin Sando
As the topic of Taiwan’s organized crime and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP, 中國共產黨) united front influence on the island has garnered international attention, analysts have posed an alarming question: “What would Taiwan’s gangs do if China invades the island?”
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