A Project by the American Enterprise Institute
This book grew out of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Foreign and Defense Policy team’s weekly conversations on issues of the day. In the fall of 2021, those conversations centered on comments by President Joe Biden that seemed to recast the American policy of ambiguity about Taiwanese independence and, further, state that the US was committed to the defense of Taiwan.
The vocation and great fun of think tank work is providing explanations and policy recommendations that shape public attitudes and administration policies. The chapters in this book have been written to do what the president has not: explain to Americans why the US should care about Taiwan’s sovereignty, what it means for the international order that has made us safe and prosperous if we do not defend the principles on which that order relies, and what it would take to successfully protect Taiwan from Chinese predation—either outright attack or subversions that might collapse its ability to defend itself.
