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Strategic Vision vol. 11, no. 52 (May, 2022)
Finding the Fighting Spirit Ukrainians’ defense against Russian onslaught offers inspiration to Taiwan Dean Karalekas
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ar too much ink has been spilled by pundits and experts speculating on how the events playing out since the February 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine by Russia will affect Taiwan. Some see direct parallels, and early on in the Ukraine conflict warned that Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping might launch a simultaneous attack on his democratic neighbor, taking advantage of the world’s preoccupation with events in Eastern Europe as cover. This did not take place, as Xi seems to have settled on a “wait and see” approach. Indeed, there has been much to see, for both sides. Beijing is no stranger to learning the lessons of war-
fare from others’ experience. The high-tech aspects of the American bombing of Iraq in the Gulf War of 1991, which led to a swift and decisive allied victory, so alarmed Chinese leaders that they launched a modernization effort on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), turning what was then a corrupt, peasant army into a modern fighting force. The events unfolding today have the same potential to offer transformative lessons, not just to the PLA, but to Taiwan’s defense planners, as they play out in already surprising ways, not just in terms of military tactics, but in multidimensional aspects of social, economic and political life.
photo: Just Click’s With A Camera A new T-90M tank, the pride of Russian tank building, was turned into scrap metal near Kharkiv.
Dean Karalekas is an Editor-at-Large for Strategic Vision and the author of Civil-Military Relations in Taiwan: Identity and Transformation. He can be reached for comment at dkaralekas@hotmail.com