Reflection on Taiwan’s Diplomatic Strategy (Part I)

Looking back at the modern history of international relations, we saw the smallest countries in the continental rim such as Spain, the Netherlands and Great Britain making great efforts to play a decisive role between the big powers by relying its existence and development through explicit prospects and grand world management strategy. Taiwan is situated in an important location of naval and land powers, and it contains an enormous potential with a great future, whether in geo-politics or geo-economics. Regrettably, since the KMT rule over Taiwan, the global outlook of land power and the mission to unify with China have blurred Taiwan’s vision, making it become a sea nationality country tied up by its land.

Nowadays, facing the great pressure of China’s rise and the effects of globalization, Taiwan must mold itself as a special island nation and establish a national operating strategy of sea power. Nevertheless, reviewing the current diplomatic strategy, whether the “One-China dispute” with Beijing, or the domestic confrontation between blue and green camps over “identity confusion,” and the conservative diplomatic mentality, leads Taiwan to face an even more difficult situation in the international arena.

In the future, Taiwan’s largest goal in diplomatic strategy is to elevate Taiwan as a “country” to a “sovereign state,” and to turn Taiwan from a “land power nation” to a “sea power nation,” displaying its geo-strategic balance role between the big powers. At the same time, Taiwan must change its conservative diplomatic mentality and behavior, showing that it is a “flexible, innovative and effective” medium to small-scale country.