U.S. Allies and the Taiwan Strait

This Element contributes to the overwhelmingly US-centric scholarship, policy discourse and analysis of policies vis-à-vis Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait of six major democratic US treaty allies – Japan, Australia, Korea, the UK, France, Germany – and the EU. It demonstrates how each government's intentionally ambiguous position regarding Taiwan's status has enabled political leaders considerable flexibility to variably operationalize their “One China” policy in practice. Allies of the US have played significantly greater roles supporting Taiwan's international space and cross-Strait stability than US-centric discourse suggests. Beyond history, worsening cross-Strait frictions all-but-guarantee US allies' future choices as critical variables impacting the status quo's sustainability and democratic Taiwan's continued viability as a de facto autonomous international actor. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.