Harish Kapur begins his study of Taiwan by saying that there is now a widespread international consensus that the island exists even though not legally. Such a situation has prompted Taiwanese leaders to design "an outgoing foreign policy - a policy that has resulted in the establishment of a wide network of relations." At the latest count, Taiwan is recognized by 29 countries and has representative offices in at least 98 countries around the world, which is quite an accomplishment considering the intense pressure from the mainland for reunification and the constraints put on Taiwan's international activities. The long journey that began with the arrival on the island of Nationalists in 1949 has transformed Taiwan into what the author calls "a friendly island among the comity of nation, even if it does not have a formal legal international status."

Kapur says there are at least four elements that influence Taiwan's foreign policy: geopolitics, environments, history and perception. Taiwan is geographically located near the mainland, which makes it a potentially easy target of attack even though China has so far been unwilling to undertake such an action. Taiwan on the other hand has assumed a strategic importance because it is located in waterways linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans, a fact recognized in the 1950s by US General Douglas MacArthur who called Taiwan an "unsinkable aircraft." Taiwan is in the midst of the chain of islands that go from the South China Sea to the Sea of Japan. Kapur says that if China were to take over Taiwan, it would have control over a vast area in the Pacific Ocean.

Taiwan has changed since 1949, internally and internationally. Internally, Taiwan has moved from being an agrarian society to becoming highly developed economically as its population is searching for a new identity. Taiwan's leaders, Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Ching-kuo, Lee Teng-Hui and Chen Shui-bian, all have had perception of a country in the future and those perceptions have evolved over the years. The most important aspect of Taiwan's foreign policy is its search for national security. That search for security has become the primary goal of every government simply because the island is located near China. But each government has had a different goal. Under Chiang Kai-shek it was an offensive strategy because of his objective of returning to the mainland following the communist victory in 1949. Today, Taiwan's leaders think more of a defensive strategy with the acquisition of new weapons and the expansion of the army. Kapur says that new strategic thinking under Chen Shui-bian's government includes the possibility of allowing Taiwan's armed forces to launch pre-emptive attacks on military installations on the mainland. The US is an important component in Taiwan's search for national security. Without the US commitment to defend Taiwan, it would be difficult for it to draw a comprehensive security plan. Another factor in determining Taiwan's foreign policy is of course China. The mainland has repeatedly threatened to take the island by force, but so far this has not happened. The domestic situation in Taiwan is another factor in its foreign policy. The country has become modernized socially and economically and has a pluralistic political system in which the government is accountable to the people.

In sum, Taiwan has thus come a long way in the more than 50 years since the Nationalists landed on the island. The country is devoted primarily to the task of survival and to defending itself against any military invasion from the mainland. From strengthening the defenses of the island by mobilizing internally to seeking protective alliances with friendly nations - the most important of which is the US - Taiwan has tried to build an active foreign policy as a deterrent against attacks from across the Taiwan Strait. "In this Taiwan has been as successful as in its modernization, for within a span of two decades it has established a wide network of diplomatic, semi-diplomatic and economic relations with most of the international actors," Kapur says. He says the world is opposed to any disastrous action by China to take over the island. He suggests that Taiwan is given a large autonomy with a guarantee of no outside interference in its external affairs and internal orientations.

Kapur teaches international relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and is director of the European Institute in New Delhi.