Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War with China

Sober, balanced, rigorously researched, and eminently readable, Defending Taiwan is a definitive guide to preventing World War III.

Taiwan is where the uneasy peace between the United States and China will be tested--and possibly broken. Beijing believes that "reunification" is inevitable. American military strength has preserved peace and stability for decades, but its advantages are eroding. Beijing has found critical gaps in U.S. strategy and is working to squeeze, isolate, and coerce Taiwan into submission without firing a shot. If deterrence fails, the consequences of a Taiwan crisis would be catastrophic--plunging the global economy into chaos, shattering U.S. alliances, and allowing China to dominate the region and reshape the world order.

In Defending Taiwan, Eyck Freymann presents the first integrated strategy to deter war with China and preserve an honorable peace. Drawing on untranslated Chinese sources, cutting-edge military and economic analysis, and deep historical research, Freymann argues that Washington's deterrence strategy must extend beyond conventional military power and familiar threats of mutually assured destruction. America must work with allies to develop a bold new vision of technological and economic statecraft--and a plan to secure its interests if deterrence fails. Freymann examines China's full range of strategic options. The United States can deter them all. But to do so, it must integrate its military strength, economic leverage, technological leadership, and diplomatic influence into a single, coherent plan to prevent war.

This is not just a book about Taiwan. It is a grand strategy to ensure lasting stability in the U.S.-China relationship. Defending Taiwan is the definitive guide to the world's most dangerous geopolitical challenge.

Eyck Freymann is a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University and a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the U.S. Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute. He is the author of The Arsenal of Democracy: Technology, Industry, and Deterrence in an Age of Hard Choices (Hoover, 2025) and One Belt One Road: Chinese Power Meets the World (Harvard, 2021). His writings have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, War on the Rocks, The China Quarterly, The Atlantic, and other venues. He previously held fellowships at Harvard and Columbia and he holds four degrees in history and China Studies from Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard.