New Opportunities and Challenges for Taiwan's Security

Revised papers from the conference "Cross-Strait Relations: New Opportunities and Challenges for Taiwan's Security," held Nov. 7, 2009, at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., jointly sponsored by the Rand Corp., the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at National Defense University, and the Council for Advanced Policy Studies (CAPS) in Taipei. It was the 21st annual conference on China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) cosponsored by Rand and CAPS. The goal was to consider how a range of political, economic, and military factors are likely to shape Taiwan's security over the coming decade. The conference featured panels on the implications of recent improvements in relations between Taiwan and mainland China, the potential role of confidence-building measures in improving cross-Strait stability and security, the effect of changes in the military balance on cross-Strait relations, and longer-term (five to ten or more years in the future) challenges to security in the Taiwan Strait and possible responses to those challenges. The panelists' papers, presented in these proceedings, included examinations of current cross-State tensions and the feasibility of confidence-building measures, U.S.-Taiwan and U.S.-China relations, political change and military capabilities in Taiwan and China, deepened cross-Strait rapprochement, and challenges to Taiwan's defense program and potential Chinese military operations in the Strait.