Journal of International Studies

Taiwan closely resembles many other middle power economies around the world. It possesses a thriving economy, a cosmopolitan citizenry and an intelligent workforce. It is also a sizeable member of the international community; its population is greater than two-thirds of the world's other nations and it contributes significantly to global GDP. Despite this, Taiwan is refused the right to gain representation and participate in some of the world's most important international forums.  A number of important episodes have played out this year which suggest that it may be disadvantageous for the international community to exclude Taiwan from involvement in key regional and global organizations.  The International Civil Aviation Organization Taiwan is currently unable to formally join the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), despite million of travellers entering Taiwanese airspace each year. The Taiwanese government has been campaigning for full in...

Last week  I wrote a piece arguing  that a strong balancing coalition against China would be more likely to deter Chinese aggression than provoke it. In that article, I briefly mentioned that to avoid antagonizing Beijing, the U.S. and its allies could form a military coalition around the mission of upholding certain principles like freedom of navigation, rather than containing a certain state like China. Since this idea was only marginally related to the main thrust of that article, I only mentioned it in passing. However, I feel the point has enough merit to consider in greater detail.   Building a military coalition or alliance around a principle like freedom of navigation would be sensible for the U.S. and its allies in a number of ways. First, support for principles like freedom of navigation and opposition to using naval force or coercion to settle territorial disputes is broadly popular in the region. Indeed, I cannot think of any state that would publicly e...