Larry Diamond

Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is a Stanford professor by courtesy of political science and sociology whose public work focuses on democracy, authoritarianism, U.S. foreign policy, China, Taiwan, and global democratic governance.

China Could Pressure Taiwan Into Submission Without Invading

In Defending Taiwan, Eyck Freymann argues that U.S. strategy is too narrowly focused on deterring a Chinese invasion and is underprepared for a gray-zone crisis that could isolate Taiwan without open war. Freymann’s case, developed in discussion with Hoover Institution participants including Philip Zelikow, is that Beijing’s most plausible path may be legal, commercial, and coercive control over Taiwan’s external ties. Deterrence, he argues, will require Washington and its allies to integrate military power with political discipline, economic planning, technological leverage, and diplomatic coordination before such a crisis begins.

Hoover InstitutionMay 14, 202622 min read