Do the United States have to use military force in order to stop China from invading Taiwan
That was the subject of this month’s Soho Forum debate, which took place in front of a full house at the Sheen Center in downtown Manhattan.
William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, defended the resolution. His argument was that the U.S. should employ all its tools to discourage foreign powers from engaging with conflict with their neighbor, in order to avoid wars such as those we see in Europe.
Peter Van Buren spent the past 24 years as a diplomat in the U.S. State Department. He took the opposite view. According to Van Buren, Americans seldom have the understanding or the context necessary to act in a productive manner in foreign conflicts. He also argued that deterrence from one side is more likely to provoke the other. He cited the years of experience as a diplomat for the State Department in Asia and stated that there wouldn’t be an invasion of Taiwan from China in the near future or soon.
The debate was moderated by Soho Forum director, Gene Epstein.
Narrated and intro edited in part by Nick Gillespie
Photo: Ju Peng Xinhua News Agency/Newscom