The N.Y. Times’ Bret Stephens fails Geopolitics 101

 American Thinker

Now, Bret Stephens and other American war hawks want to risk war with Russia in Ukraine to save Taiwan because “China is watching.” What China is watching, however, is a Biden administration that cannot make up its mind whether to recognize Taiwan as an independent country and adopt a policy of “strategic clarity” in defense of the island or to continue the policy of “strategic ambiguity.” Mackinder, Spykman, and Mahan would likely say: “If your goal is to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and to defeat such an invasion if it occurs, arm, support and defend Taiwan, not Ukraine. China is watching what we are doing -- and not doing -- in the South China Sea, not in Eastern Europe. We should focus, as Clausewitz said, on the “center of gravity,” which is Taiwan, not Ukraine.

China should be watching U.S. military aid and supplies pouring into Taiwan; a significantly enhanced U.S. naval presence in the South China Sea; visits by high-ranking U.S. defense and foreign policy officials to Taiwan; diplomatic solidarity among the U.S., Japan, and other regional allies; and the use by U.S. officials of quiet diplomacy to make it unmistakably clear to China’s leaders that the U.S. and its regional allies will defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack or invasion. That is Geopolitics 101-- and Bret Stephens gets an “F.”