On the Brink: A Military History of Taiwan
By Eric Setzekorn
Review by Steven-Paul Lapid, USN (Ret.)
For more than seventy-five years, Taiwan has lived under the shadow of a much larger adversary less than one hundred miles away. Yet despite repeated crises, diplomatic isolation, shifting American policies, and the dramatic growth of Chinese military power, Taiwan has survived. In On the Brink: A Military History of Taiwan, historian and former U.S. Army officer Eric Setzekorn asks readers to look beyond the familiar story of competition between Washington and Beijing. His focus is Taiwan itself, particularly the armed forces that have spent three quarters of a century adapting to an evolving threat while undergoing an equally significant transformation at home.
The book’s greatest strength is its perspective. Taiwan emerges from a complicated interaction among American assistance, Taiwanese decision-making, military adaptation, domestic politics, and changing social attitudes toward the armed forces. Setzekorn is particularly effective in examining the tension between military professionalism and political control. The early Republic of China military was deeply intertwined with the Kuomintang (KMT) and Chiang Kai-shek’s authoritarian government. Political loyalty often competed with professional competence, while the military served as an instrument of party control. General Sun Li-jen provides one of the book’s most compelling examples. A key figure in rebuilding the defeated military after 1949, Sun advocated a more professional military ethos. His resistance to the expanding political officer system associated with Chiang Ching-kuo contributed to his removal and eventual house arrest, which lasted more than three decades.
It is here that On the Brink becomes more than a conventional military history. Setzekorn treats conscription, veterans’ programs, political indoctrination, gender integration, military justice, and public attitudes as components of military power. That perspective gives Taiwan’s democratization particular significance. Over decades, an exiled party-army dominated by mainland Chinese officers became a professional force increasingly representative of and accountable to Taiwanese society. Setzekorn concludes that today’s military is “more balanced, adaptable, and sustainable than at any period in the past seventy-five years.” The argument is initially counterintuitive. Taiwan once maintained roughly half a million military personnel and benefited from extensive American assistance. Yet that apparent strength concealed an institution constrained by political interference, rigid doctrine, social divisions, and an increasingly unrealistic commitment to retaking mainland China.
The same historical perspective gives Setzekorn a useful lens for examining contemporary debates over Taiwan’s defense. An asymmetric “porcupine” strategy emphasizing mobile missiles, mines, drones, dispersed forces, and other survivable systems has obvious advantages against a Chinese amphibious invasion. Setzekorn demonstrates, however, that invasion is not Taiwan’s only potential contingency. A blockade, persistent gray-zone coercion, or seizure of an offshore territory could require capabilities very different from those optimized for destroying an invasion force approaching Taiwan’s beaches. Setzekorn applies similar nuance to the U.S.-Taiwan military relationship. American assistance has been indispensable, but the relationship has never been entirely consistent. Washington has simultaneously strengthened Taiwan’s defenses and constrained actions that American policymakers feared could trigger a wider conflict. Periods of extensive cooperation have also alternated with periods of disengagement.
The book is not without minor limitations. Its extensive treatment of organizational structures, personnel policies, weapons procurement, and defense institutions can occasionally slow the narrative. Readers primarily interested in combat history may find some sections dense, while the forward-looking final chapter necessarily moves beyond the firmer ground of historical analysis. Yet these are largely consequences of the book’s considerable scope. Ultimately, On the Brink succeeds because Setzekorn asks a more interesting question than whether Taiwan possesses enough weapons to defeat China. He examines how Taiwan developed the capacity to resist a much larger adversary and how that capacity has endured despite dramatic changes in military technology, domestic politics, international relationships, and the balance of power.
The most consequential development in the Taiwan Strait since 1949 may therefore not be the changing number of aircraft, ships, missiles, or soldiers on either side. It is the transformation of Taiwan’s armed forces from an authoritarian party-army in exile into a professional military increasingly rooted in the democratic society it exists to defend. For military professionals, policymakers, historians, and readers seeking to understand the Taiwan Strait beyond headlines and invasion scenarios, On the Brink provides something contemporary analysis often lacks: the historical context necessary to understand not only the threat Taiwan faces, but the military institution that would have to confront it.
Highly Recommended.
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
About the Reviewer
Steven-Paul Lapid, USN (Ret.), is a bestselling author and award-winning leadership educator. A retired U.S. Navy surface warfare officer, he served for more than two decades in assignments spanning conventional surface forces and Naval Special Warfare. He is the author of Helm & Horizon: Daily Leadership Principles for the Motivated Sailor and teaches leadership and professional development to military and civilian audiences.
