Military constructions of the ocean on post-War Taiwan in three phases

ABSTRACT This paper aims to demonstrate a main thesis of Philip Steinberg’s theory of territorial political economy that identifies the notion that the natural condition of a geographical phenomenon influences the situation of its material organisation of society, and, in turn, the content of the corresponding social construction of the geographical phenomenon. In the case of this paper, the sea of the Taiwan Strait provided a given natural condition. The strategies of the state governing Taiwan and the balance of military power across the Strait became critical factors of the material organisations utilising the Taiwan Strait. This paper thus demonstrates that different state strategies and the changing balance of military power in the three phases between 1949 and 2008 in post-War Taiwan resulted in various constructions of the ocean by the ROC Armed Forces. When the ROC’s strategies were offensive (or tactically aggressive), and when the ROC’s military forces were confident to defeat the PLA on the sea, the military construction of the ocean followed the pattern of the Mediterranean Sea Model. When the ROC’s strategy became defensive and its military attempted to avoid battles on the sea, the construction of the ocean transformed into one of the Indian Ocean Model.