Poison Shrimp: Deterrence, Defense Cooperation, and Total Defense from Europe to Asia
Abstract
Great Power Competition (GPC) pervades the U.S.-China relationship. However, the GPC dialog ignores the countries caught in between. While an ocean separates the United States and China, many nations in Asia sit next to China and worry about Beijing's intentions. While some have strong conventional military forces to deter attacks, other nations do not have the same forces. Fortunately, Sweden and Singapore have defense concepts that lean on the entire society to contribute to defense. Both countries have Total Defense (TD) policies that complement traditional military forces. Both countries also purposely build defense cooperation. Sweden works with NATO, and Singapore has cooperation with the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and the United States. Integrating the whole population into homeland defense and enhancing defense cooperation increase the cost and risk of invasion for any attacker. The risks may even be enough to prevent war. Given Sweden and Singapore's experience, this thesis advocates that Vietnam and Taiwan develop TD or enhance existing TD plans, respectively, and that the United States support Vietnam and Taiwan in this endeavor. For Taiwan, U.S. assistance could guide the acquisition of weapons that have traditional and asymmetric use. The United States should also expand special operations cooperation with Taiwan to increase unconventional resistance capability.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1126974
Entities
People
- Daniel Le
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School