Theater Missile Defense In Taiwan

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Far East, grade: 1,7, University of Münster (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), course: Theater Missile Defense in Europe and Asia - A Comparison, language: English, abstract: Das Thema Raketenabwehr wird vorrangig mit den amerikanischen Stationierungsplänen für Polen und die Tschechische Republik in Verbindung gebracht. Trotz vergleichbarer sicherheitspolitischer Relevanz spielt das ebenfalls von den USA unterstütze Raketenabwehrsystem auf Taiwan in den westlichen Medien keine wesentliche Rolle. Während sich Taiwan besseren Schutz vor chinesischen Raketenangriffen verspricht, betrachtet China eine taiwanesische Raketenabwehr als einen weiteren Schritt der "abtrünnigen Provinz" in Richtung formale Unabhängigkeit. Die Analyse der regionalen sowie globalen Implikationen ergibt, dass ein Raketenabwehrsystem auf Taiwan geringen militärischen Nutzen aufweist und die Beziehungen zwischen den USA und China destabilisiert.

As East Asia is entering the 21st Century, Japan, in reassessing its security environment and thus its strategic calculus, is on the verge of deploying latest jointly-researched theater missile defenses (TMD) to counter the threat of ballistic and cruise missiles. In parallel, the People's Republic of China is constantly modernizing its ballistic missile forces and is gearing up for a possible contingency with its self-proclaimed "high-tech adversaries". This work shows what drives Japan to deploy theater missile defenses and how the People's Republic of China is poised to be reacting to it.

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Region: Far East, grade: 1,7, University of Münster (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), course: Theater Missile Defense in Europe and Asia – A Comparison, language: English, abstract: Das Thema Raketenabwehr wird vorrangig mit den amerikanischen Stationierungsplänen für Polen und die Tschechische Republik in Verbindung gebracht. Trotz vergleichbarer sicherheitspolitischer Relevanz spielt das ebenfalls von den USA unterstütze Raketenabwehrsystem auf Taiwan in den westlichen Medien keine wesentliche Rolle. Während sich Taiwan besseren Schutz vor chinesischen Raketenangriffen verspricht, betrachtet China eine taiwanesische Raketenabwehr als einen weiteren Schritt der "abtrünnigen Provinz" in Richtung formale Unabhängigkeit. Die Analyse der regionalen sowie globalen Implikationen ergibt, dass ein Raketenabwehrsystem auf Taiwan geringen militärischen Nutzen aufweist und die Beziehungen zwischen den USA und China destabilisiert.

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Politics - Region: Far East, grade: 1,3, University of Potsdam, course: Security Studies, language: English, abstract: After the end of the Cold War the Taiwan Strait is one of the remaining global ‘hot spots’. In fact, the Taiwan Strait “remains the locus of one of the most dangerous military confrontations in the world”, a fact that was underlined through the showdown during 1996 missile crisis when the U.S. send two carrier battle groups into the region in order to deter a hawkish mainland Chinese towards the Republic of China, Taiwan. As we have evaluated during the seminar, the strategic focus of the United States has since the end of the Cold War clearly shifted from Europe to Asia (Brezinski: Die einzige Weltmacht, 1997). I have chosen to look more closely at the geopolitics of the Taiwanese-Chinese conflict theater and especially the involvement of another regional hegemon in East Asia, the United States of America. For 30 years (1949-1979) the United States was Taiwan’s principal patron tied in a mutual defense treaty that secured the tiny island republic’s stand against the highly populated communist mainland and emerging economic powerhouse. In 1979 the U.S. officially recognizes the People’s Republic of China which terminated official relations to Taipei and the mutual defense treaty. Yet, the same year, U.S. Congress’ Taiwan Relation Act ties Taiwan’s defense concerns close to American interest again. From then on, Washington is balancing its responsibility and security concerns for ROC on the one side and an interest in closer and stabilized relations with PRC. The Taiwan question - reunification, independence or status quo - bears not only geopolitical ramifications, but also has a cultural, economical, and political dimension. Yet, I will try to strap down this question to the military aspects of geopolitics.

Taiwan_s foreign and defense policies have evolved greatly since the days of Chiang Kai-Shek. Its leaders have created a government based on popular sovereignty rather than Chinese nationalism; adopted pragmatic and creative approaches to expanding its international presence, and sought to make itself safe from attack or coercion by Mainland China through acquiring modern weapons, building a more efficient military, and developing closer military and political ties with the United States. China, in turn, has adopted a complex strategy of pressures and enticements to arrest Taiwan_s moves toward greater independence. The United States and Japan also wield substantial influence over Taiwan_s foreign and defense policies, but U.S. influence is clearly the dominant influence on Taiwan_s decisions about theater ballistic missile defenses-providing information and advice that will strongly shape the course of Taiwan_s planning, procurement, and deployment. The authors conclude that the United States should continue to maintain a public allegiance to the One China concept, combined with a posture of public ambiguity regarding the level of the U.S. defense commitment. Privately, the United States should make it clear to Beijing that it will respond militarily to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, and should state to Taipei that it will prevent a unilateral attempt to gain independence.

Recent US plans to deploy national missile defense (NMD) and theater missile defense (TMD) have emerged as significant issues for stability in Northeast Asia, a region that faces a number of critical uncertainties and daunting security challenges in the coming decade. These uncertainties and challenges include questions about the future US military role in the region, historical distrust between major powers, the continued existence of divided states, ongoing military modernization programs, territorial disputes, resource conflicts, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, and continuing shifts in relative economic and military power. US interest in deploying NMD and TMD is partly a response to military developments in Northeast Asia, including China's missile buildup across the Taiwan Strait and North Korea's efforts to develop nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. Yet the US debate about missile defense has largely focused on NMD and the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. This originally steered the debate toward Russia and away from China and Japan. The US national security community has tended to emphasize the military requirements and effectiveness of NMD and TMD without fully examining the regional security implications. As a result, these implications have not been fully explored and debated either within US policymaking circles or with their counterpart communities in China and Japan. Broader US interests in the region, maintenance of US alliances and nonproliferation goals have not been systematically connected to missile defense issues. To address these shortcomings, the Stanley Foundation, in conjunction with the National Defense University and the Monterey Institute of International Studies' Center for Nonproliferation Studies, organized a series of three conferences to conduct a thorough examination of the regional security implications of US NMD and TMD plans. This conference series, titled Ballistic Missile Defense in Northeast Asia: Implications for Security Relations Among the Regional Powers, engaged a wide variety of experts from the United States, China, and Japan to gain insights into the potential political and military implications of specific US deployment modes. A report of the conference series was prepared by Evan S. Medeiros of the Monterey Institute and published by the Stanley Foundation. The following brief highlights the key conclusions of the report.

Colonel Patrick M. O'Donogue (U.S. Army War College class of 2000) considers a topic of key importance to U.S. national security. Perhaps no security matter (with the exception of National Missile Defense) is as contentious globally as Theater Missile Defense (TMD). The question of U.S. assistance to Japan to develop and deploy a TMD is particularly complex and controversial.