Coping with the Dragon: Essays on PLA Transformation and the U. S. Military

Name: Coping with the Dragon: Essays on PLA Transformation and the U. S. Military
Price: 17.55 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9781478192107

ISBN-10: 1478192100

ISBN-13: 9781478192107

Edition: N/A

Authors: National University, Neyla Arnas, Tai Cheung, David Gompert, Stuart Johnson

List price: $18.99

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Description:

The probability of conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan has diminished in recent years. The chief potential flashpoint for war, a Taiwanese declaration of independence, has become less likely as Taiwan's independence movement has waned and economic ties with the mainland have strengthened. Should the independence movement in Taiwan regain political momentum, however, the potential for U.S. military intervention in the Taiwan Strait would increase. Further, the perception of U.S. vulnerability in the region could invite assertiveness. So, despite the fact that armed conflict between the United States and China is in no one's interest, China's burgeoning power requires… that critical factor sin U.S. plans for the defense of Taiwan be examined. This collection of essays offers just such an examination. It looks at China's growing strength, the strategies underlying U.S. plans for military intervention in the Strait, U.S. vulnerabilities, and options for how these vulnerabilities might be overcome through the development of new technologies and strategies. The U.S. defense commitment to Taiwan, thought tacit and conditional, has been a long-standing strategic constant. America's ability to prevent the invasion or coercion of Taiwan, however, is more variable. As the Defense Department's most recent report to Congress on Chinese military power indicates, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has embarked on a concerted effort to modernize, with the goal of being able to conduct (and counter) the sort of rapid, precise, information-intensive operations of which the U.S. military is now capable. Of particular concern in a Taiwan scenario is China's growing ability to track, target, and destroy U.S. carrier strike groups (CSGs), which are the fulcrum of American military strategy in the region. The Defense Department reports that the PLA is focused on targeting surface ships at long ranges, perhaps as far as the "second island chain," east of Japan and as far south as Guam. China is amassing the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (SR) and strike assets needed to conduct long-range precision attacks. These growing capabilities are coupled with PLA doctrine that emphasizes preemption and surprise attack; the potential significance of this turn of thought was underscored by China's January 2007 demonstration of antisatellite weapon. China's growing capabilities demand that the United States carefully review the evolving military balance in the western Pacific and consider the implications for further strategy. Each essay addresses a key part of the Taiwan intervention puzzle. The compilation moves from an overview of U.S. strength and China's growing military abilities (Gompert); to two pieces on China's present and future military technology (Cheung) and personnel (Lo) resources; to an examination of a particular threat to U.S. regional power, China's improving ISR capabilities (Mulvenon); to a review of U.S. maritime (McDevitt) and aerial (Shlapak) strengths and vulnerabilities; to a piece on how some aerial vulnerabilities could be allayed with UAVs (Libicki); to an analysis of U.S. options to better deter Chinese aggression (Gompert and Long); to a forward-looking article on how a new U.S. fleet architecture could change the balance of power in a Taiwan Strait conflict (Johnson).

Book details

List price: $18.99
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication date: 7/5/2012
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 158
Size: 6.00" wide x 9.00" long x 0.36" tall
Weight: 0.638
Language: English

Tina Overton is Professor of Chemical Education in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hull, and Director of the Higher Education Academy Physical Sciences Centre. Tina graduated from Humberside Polytechnic in 1982, and has been at the University of Hull since 1992. StuartJohnson is an academic skills developer at the University of Leicester. He obtained a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Leicester, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Learning and Development from Thames Valley University. Dr Jon Scott is Director of Biological Studies at the University ofLeicester. He obtained a BSc in Biological Sciences and a PhD in Neurobiology from Durham University. He has been…