December 18, 2015
The Mind Games Behind Obama Arming Taiwan
American presidents like to announce major arms sales to Taiwan when they are leaving office. George Herbert Walker Bush announced the sale of nearly $8 billion in hardware, including 150 F-16 fighters and Patriot-derived air defense units, in 1992; Bill Clinton parceled out about $2 billion in defense equipment during his final year in office, 2000; and George W. Bush notified Congress of his intent to sell more than $6.4 billion in defense equipment in 2008. Barack Obama broke this trend by announcing more than $12 billion in arms sales to Taiwan during the in-between years of his first term, in 2010 and 2011. Now approaching its final year in office, the Obama administration has announced its first arms sale to Taiwan in more than four years. And compared with its initial sales, it is uncommonly modest and inherently defensive.
Read the full article on The National Interest.
More from CNAS
-
Big Take: The Real Costs of the U.S. Iran Blockade
Congressional Testimony
On today's Big Take podcast, Bloomberg Global Defense Editor Gerry Doyle and Bloomberg Economics Defense Lead and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Securi...
By Becca Wasser
-
Drones, Missiles, and the U.S. Munitions Shortage
Reports
Executive Summary Drones have exploded in popularity since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. There is a growing view that inexpensive drones—“affordable mass”—a...
By Philip Sheers & Stacie Pettyjohn
-
Rethink... Warfare
Podcast
Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security, joins BBC Sounds - Rethink to discuss how recent conflicts have changed the shape ...
By Stacie Pettyjohn
-
A Body Blow? The War on Iran and U.S. Military Readiness
Podcast
The war against Iran is putting new strains on U.S. military readiness by consuming munitions and missile defense interceptors, as well as through extended deployments, sustai...
By Stacie Pettyjohn
