Relations among the United States, Taiwan, and China challenge policymakers, international relations specialists, and a concerned public to examine their assumptions about security, sovereignty, and peace. Only a Taiwan Straits conflict could plunge Americans into war with a nuclear-armed great power. In a timely and deeply informed book, Nancy Bernkopf Tucker traces the thorny relationship between the United States and Taiwan as both watch China’s power grow.

Although Taiwan–U.S. security has been intertwined since the 1950s, neither Taipei nor Washington ever fully embraced the other. Differences in priorities and perspectives repeatedly raised questions about the wisdom of the alignment. Tucker discusses the nature of U.S. commitments to Taiwan; the intricacies of policy decisions; the intentions of critical actors; the impact of Taiwan’s democratization; the role of lobbying; and the accelerating difficulty of balancing Taiwan against China. In particular, she examines the destructive mistrust that undermines U.S. cooperation with Taiwan, stymieing efforts to resolve cross-Strait tensions.

Strait Talk offers valuable historical context for understanding U.S.–Taiwan ties and is essential reading for anyone interested in international relations and security issues today.

* Illustrations
* Acknowledgments
* Introduction: Landscape and Memory
* In the Context of the Cold War

1. The Origins of Strategic Ambiguity
Detente
2. Taiwan Expendable?
3. Survival
Ford’s Tribulations
4. Collapse and Reprieve
Moral Imperatives; Military Challenges
5. Derecognition
6. Final Act
7. The Taiwan Relations Act
Recognizing Your Friends and Enemies
8. The Reagan Difference
9. American Assurances
The End of the Cold War
10. Shifting Ground
Search for a New World Order
11. Change and Continuity
12. Taiwan Strait Crisis
13. Setting the Record Straight
War against Terrorism
14. The Influence of Democracy

* Conclusion: The Uses of Adversity
* Abbreviations
* Notes
* Interviews
* Bibliography
* Index