The Ministry of National Defense (MND) rolled out Taiwan's first Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) on Monday in accordance with an amendment to the National Defense Act (國防法). With relations across the Taiwan Strait warming and calls for peace dividend growing, this forward-looking strategy document has come at the right time.
The ministry had previously published its National Defense Report every two years to keep the general public informed of what was being done to support the country's defense. The new QDR, modeled on the US Department of Defense's quadrennial study, highlights the president's defense planning guidelines and notifies the legislature of the ministry's plans for the next four years. The Legislative Yuan now has a new reference document at hand to help it better oversee defense and budget planning during President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) first term.
Taiwan's first QDR has two main themes: prevention and transformation.
The overall modernization of the nation's defense is necessary to prevent military conflict in the Taiwan Strait, while transformation of defense is necessary to enable the military to deal with the changing nature of modern warfare, advanced weapons systems, demographic change, an aging society and limited financial resources.
For prevention, the Ma administration does not rely solely on modernizing and building up its forces, but also strives for manageable cross-strait relations and closer defense collaboration with friends and allies in the Asia-Pacific region. Shaping a peaceful environment by using a defensive strategy, Taiwan intends to adopt a combination of political, diplomatic and military confidence-building measures to minimize the threat of military conflict so that the country can earn precious time to focus more on revitalizing the economy and transforming the military.
For transformation, the ministry emphasizes reorganization, force restructuring and the need for jointness. The most ambitious reform program is changing the nearly 60-year-old conscription system to an all-volunteer force capable of meeting the future demands of high-tech warfare. By also cutting 60,000 personnel and integrating the military police, reserve force and joint logistics commands over the next four years, the Taiwanese military intends to build a smaller, elite force with joint combat capability.
Some may be concerned that aspects of the transformation roadmap laid out in the QDR, especially the all-volunteer force structure, are too complex to be smoothly implemented. However, defense reform will be much more difficult if tensions across the Taiwan Strait are high.
On defense planning, the ministry says that the existing " 10-year military development " and " five-year force planning " programs will be governed by the QDR, giving clear directions and criteria for planning and programming. This will provide lawmakers with a better long-term understanding for use in parliamentary oversight, in addition to the annual government report delivered by the premier.
The QDR said the Taiwanese military would maintain its long-standing military strategic guideline of "resolute defense and effective deterrence." Even with the political detente across the Taiwan Strait, the ministry remains committed to modernization of the military, targeting key joint capabilities through doctrinal refinement, professional military education reform and intelligent procurement. The QDR did not fully adopt the " porcupine" concept recommended by some US officials, but maintains the doctrine of keeping invasion forces from landing in Taiwan.
The Taiwanese military is encountering tremendous challenges from outside and within: the rapid buildup of the People's Liberation Army, the encouraging but not guaranteed security assistance from democratic allies, difficulties in locating suppliers for the replacement of obsolete systems, the emerging expectations for peace dividend during a time of economic hardship and domestic voices against military investment based on the assumption that peace can be reached only by " soft power. "
Nevertheless, the QDR tries to rally parliamentary and public support of the armed forces as an essential part of Taiwan's "smart power."
With the release of Taiwan' s first QDR, the ministry should now begin to work with local and international experts to formulate policy and programs and to explore monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure the guidelines provided in this strategy document can be best translated into effective deliverables.
Alexander Huang is professor of strategy and wargaming at Tamkang University.
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