On April 20, an article by former NAEI YGP Sam Bird was published in the National Interest, challenging prevailing thinking about US policy towards Taiwan. Bird made the case for the US enabling Taiwan’s defense by providing low-cost weapons, but not overcommitting to the island’s security and risking US interests. The essay won the John Quincy Adams Society’s annual writing competition. 

“The United States should not trade Los Angeles for Taipei. This states the problem of defending Taiwan bluntly, but it is fundamentally the proposition that American policymakers should consider when determining whether the United States should enter a war with China over the island. A Sino-American war in the Taiwan Strait is ripe for miscalculation and nuclear escalation. Therefore, the United States should seek every possible policy option short of going to war and offer Taiwan incentives to develop an indigenous, asymmetric defense, in a manner that is consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act.”