Speaker: Andrew S. Erickson, Visiting Scholar, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies; Professor of Strategy, China Maritime Studies Institute, U.S. Naval War College

This presentation addresses the subject of Taiwan’s security—not from a political or policy standpoint, but rather from a geographical, historical, military operational, and strategic perspective. It explicates Taiwan’s geostrategic position and surveys the military aspects of key events regarding cross-Strait security, with particular focus on China’s aborted invasion plans for 1950; as well as the 1954–55, 1958, and 1995–96 crises, and sophisticated large-scale exercises beginning in 2022. It explains China’s current all-domain pressure campaign against Taiwan, as well as the evolving operational capabilities and potential military campaigns that Xi has ordered his armed forces to prepare as part of his signature military development deadline: the Centennial Military Building Goal of 2027. It concludes by considering Taiwan’s strategic significance.

Andrew S. Erickson is a Visiting Scholar at the Fairbank Center. He is also Professor of Strategy in the U.S. Naval War College (NWC)’s China Maritime Studies Institute, which he helped establish and has served as Research Director. Erickson has received the Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal, NWC’s inaugural Civilian Faculty Research Excellence Award, and NBR’s inaugural Ellis Joffe Prize for PLA Studies. Erickson’s latest coedited volume, Chinese Amphibious Warfare: Prospects for a Cross-Strait Invasion, has been named the Samuel B. Griffith Foundation’s 2025 Publication of the Year and selected for the Commandant of the Marine Corps Professional Reading Program’s 2025 Reading List. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry published a Chinese-language translation of his coedited volume on China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations in 2023.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by Dr. Erickson are his alone, based solely on open sources and offered from an independent academic perspective. They do not represent the policies or estimates of the U.S. Navy or any other organization of the U.S. government, or of any other organization with which he is affiliated. Dr. Erickson is presenting in his personal capacity, not as an employee of the U.S. government.