Will Europe Defend Taiwan?

Abstract

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led European powers, the European Union (EU), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) all to realize that significant steps were needed to redress the European security order. They responded to the invasion by imposing major economic sanctions against Moscow, delivering arms and other assistance to Kyiv, and revitalizing NATO. As NATO’s new Strategic Concept of June 2022 noted, the Euro-Atlantic area is now defined by “strategic competition, pervasive instability and recurrent shocks.” Importantly, it termed the Russian Federation a “direct threat” to allies’ security, the first such usage since the end of the Cold War. Moreover, Russia’s actions have raised concerns in Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and the United States that China will also ramp up its political as well as economic pressure and military aggression to unify its claimed territories. To this end, NATO’s Strategic Concept also stated that China’s “ambitions and coercive policies” challenged NATO’s interests, security and values. It further added that the “deepening strategic partnership between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests.” Finally, NATO pledged to “address the systemic challenges posed by the PRC to Euro-Atlantic security.” One of those challenges for Europe is whether to support Taiwan, an island which Beijing seeks to bring under its political control, through the use of military force if