CKN Knowledge Session - Taiwanese Perspectives on Russia’s War in Ukraine
CKN Knowledge Session
In this March edition of the CKN Knowledge Sessions, Dr. Covell Meyskens - Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in California, USA - explored Taiwan’s perspectives on Russia’s war in Ukraine by asking the following pertinent questions:
1. (How) has the war in Ukraine changed Taiwan’s military strategy?
2. How does it see its strategic environment change?
3. What is the impact of the war on Taiwan’s relationship with the US and the EU?
4. What is the public’s response in Taiwan to events unfolding in Ukraine?
The various answers include:
(1) Taiwan has sped up its transition from conventional to asymmetric warfare, which includes the acquisition of more small-scale arms and developing a more de-centralized command structure;
(2) Recent shifts in US foreign policy have made the geopolitical environment more uncertain for Taiwan;
(3) Taiwan has been trying to expand its economic, political, and military ties with the US. Due to the war in Ukraine, US Congress has become more vocally supportive of Taiwan, which should also be seen as part of a larger pushback against China by the US;
(4) Taiwan does not view its relationship with the EU as particularly strong because it does not expect the EU to give any significant security backing. Nevertheless, should conflict arise, Taiwan hopes the EU would be willing to leverage its economic power against China;
(5) The extensive coverage of the war in Ukraine has made the Taiwanese public much more aware of what a potential conflict at home would look like.
Also check out these answers in the CKN interview conducted with Dr. Meyskens!
Interested in more? You can watch the entire lecture given by Dr. Meyskens on our CKN YouTube channel.
About the keynote speaker:
Dr. Covell Meyskens is a historian of modern China interested in security, development, and great power competition in East Asia and the Indo-Pacific. His research examines national security and economic development in modern China. He has conducted studies for the U.S. Department of Defense on Taiwanese security, Chinese influence operations abroad; China’s BRI; Sino-Russian relations; and Chinese views of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Meyskens holds a PhD and MA in History from the University of Chicago. He is the author of Mao’s Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China, published by Cambridge University Press. He is currently working on his second book, The Three Gorges Dam: Building a Developmental Engine for China and the World. He has published in academic journals and policy outlets such as Foreign Policy, Cold War History, The Nonproliferation Review, Asia Policy, and the New York Times.
