Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – The Hoover Institution Press has released The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan, a practical guide for Taiwan, the United States and its friends in the Indo-Pacific, and the wider world to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from annexing or blockading the island nation by use of force.
Edited by former deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger, contributors include acclaimed military and political leaders and scholars throughout the world.
The authors stress that China is the greatest threat to a peaceful and rule-bound geopolitical order, and that the threat of a People’s Liberation Army takeover of Taiwan has deep ramifications for international security and stability. PRC leader Xi Jinping has openly expressed his intention to annex Taiwan to mainland China, even suggesting the use of force.
According to the authors, a robust military strategy is essential for countering Beijing’s aggression. Pottinger and his team map out a workable military strategy for Taiwan, the United States, Japan, Australia, and Europe to pursue collectively, urging quick adoption to avert a devastating war. The significance of Taiwan to the world economy, semiconductor supply, and Indo-Pacific security is underscored.
They argue that preventing a war through a credible “deterrence by denial” strategy—allowing the adversary to understand that his military strategies have little chance at success—is more affordable than waging one.
For Pottinger and his coauthors, preventing China’s coercive annexation of Taiwan requires democracies to demonstrate not just the means but also the will to effectively resist. They convey how an invasion or blockade of Taiwan by Chinese forces would be catastrophic, with severe consequences for democracies worldwide.
The Boiling Moat’s recommendations draw heavily on the experience of Ukraine, both its inability to deter Russia from invading and the new tactics employed on its battlefields, including the rise of drone warfare. The book’s contributors recommend significant changes to how the Republic of China’s (Taiwan’s) ground forces and reserves are organized. The authors also assert Taiwan’s leadership should make structural changes, divestments, and transfers within its military forces to bolster the nation’s defense effectiveness.
Matt Pottinger and the book’s contributors say that only through a demonstrated increase in the availability of combat power in Taiwan, and a representation that its people are prepared to endure the costs of sustained armed resistance, will Xi Jinping conclude that an invasion is unwise.
Advance Praise for The Boiling Moat:
“With The Boiling Moat, Matt Pottinger becomes Taiwan’s Paul Revere. He and his contributors give us a lucid, informative, and yet spellbinding menu of unwelcome scenarios from which Xi Jinping will choose to ‘reunify the motherland’ and advance his ‘China Dream.’”
—Orville Schell, author of Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-First Century
“If you are concerned about the looming conflict with China over Taiwan, read this book and ask those in positions of leadership to heed its recommendations with a sense of urgency.”
—H.R. McMaster, former US national security advisor and Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
“The Boiling Moat is a one-of-a-kind book that lays out precisely how we can deter the catastrophic war that China’s dictator is planning.”
—Mike Pompeo, former US secretary of state and CIA director
About the Editor:
Matt Pottinger is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a former US deputy national security advisor.
Foreword:
Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University.
Contributors:
Ross Babbage, Gabriel B. Collins, Larry Diamond, Andrew S. Erickson, Robert Haddick, Isaac “Ike” Harris, Michael A. Hunzeker, Ivan Kanapathy, Yoji Koda, Elaine Luria, Kobi Marom, Mark Montgomery, Grant Newsham, Jonas Parello-Plesner, Matt Pottinger, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Matthew Turpin, Enoch Wu
Click here to order The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan.
For coverage opportunities, contact Jeffrey Marschner, 202-760-3187, jmarsch@stanford.edu.
