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China raising tensions in the Strait
By Chao Chien-min 趙建民
Then-US ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft originally planned to visit Taiwan on Jan. 12, but the plan was called off after drawing a fierce reaction from Beijing. On March 26, Taiwan and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a coast guard working group. Beijing responded by dispatching 20 military aircraft to breach Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), setting a new record for the highest number of incursions in a single day since the Ministry of National Defense began publishing information on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft movements.
April 14, 2021
Preface
It is in the United States’ strategic interests to ensure that the world mobilizes effectively to end the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. A proactive U.S. role is essential to secure the gains underway in the United States and ensure Americans’ health, safety, and prosperity into the future. Helping to secure the future of lower- and middle-income countries is also simply the right thing to do, on humanitarian, economic, and security grounds.
Today, the United States is quickly approaching a moment of genuine promise, when exceptionally effective vaccines, accelerated distribution at home, and an enlarged American vaccine industrial base open the door for the Biden administration to bring American leadership to urgent global vaccine challenges. The United States’ health, economic, and national security interests argue for seizing this moment, beginning with presidential leadership to explain the stakes to Americans still legitimately worried about the epidemic at
The Peace Tower at Canadian Parliament. (Shutterstock)
National security is one of those national requirements and state functions that evokes mixed reactions from many Canadians. Some worry that any national security measures are intrinsically a threat to individual freedom and political diversity; others worry that our authorities are too passive in the face of growing threats from state and criminal enemies. Historically, Canada’s experience in terms of interpreting its Charter of Rights and Freedoms, its legitimate constraints on government excess, and our invaluable alliance with the Five Eyes security network (comprised of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) reflects some of the defining dimensions of our national security landscape. The fact that our major allies have completed months-long recalibrations of their own national security purposes and areas of focus should encourage Canadian policy makers to open the door to a fact-based re
The gray zone is the space between peace and war involving coercive actions that fall outside normal geopolitical competition between states but do not reach the level of armed conflict.. They usually seek to avoid a significant military response, though are often designed to intimidate and deter a target state by threatening further escalation.
[B]ut do liberal democracies in the 21st Century have the political will to do the dirty work that is necessary to win?
Western nations have multiple pre-emptive and reactive options to respond to gray zone actions directed against them or their allies, most effectively involving multilateral coordination. The objective should be to frustrate or deter, avoiding escalation that might lead to all-out conflict. Broadly, options fall into four categories: diplomatic, informational, economic and military.