Taiwan is a flourishing liberal democracy and a key player in the global economy. Yet it is far from secure. China considers it a renegade province and has not renounced its right to use force to resolve the dispute. Taiwan must therefore deter China’s aggression by convincing Chinese leaders that the costs using force against Taiwan will outweigh any possible benefits. 

In this monograph, a team of researchers from George Mason University and the University of Waterloo suggest a holistic strategy that Taiwan can use to enhance its conventional deterrence posture. Their conclusions are simple but radical: instead of organizing its defenses around a small inventory of conventional jets, ships and tanks, Taiwan should acquire large numbers of cheap, asymmetric weapons. It should also transform its massive reserve command into a territorial defense force trained to wage guerrilla warfare. By threatening to wage a never-ending war of denial against an invader, Taiwan can more credibly impact China’s cost-benefit calculus.