Philip Zelikow

Philip Zelikow is the Botha-Chan Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a historian, attorney, and former U.S. diplomat whose work focuses on statecraft, national security, international diplomacy, and critical episodes in world history. He previously served as Counselor of the U.S. Department of State, executive director of the 9/11 Commission, and director of the Covid Crisis Group.

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