Defense Priorities

1. Target Taiwan: Prospects for a Chinese invasion

Military analysis and dynamics of an all-out invasion of Taiwan by China

2. Target Taiwan: Challenges for a U.S. intervention

U.S. military options in an all-out Chinese invasion of Taiwan

3. Target Taiwan: Limits of allied support

Whether and how Asian allies might enable U.S. efforts to defend Taiwan

4. Target Taiwan: One China and cross-strait stability

One China, strategic ambiguity, and prolonging Taiwan's autonomy

5. Target Taiwan: Military risk from Chinese conquest

Why annexation of Taiwan wouldn't serve as a trampoline for Chinese military expansion

Photo of Lyle Goldstein

Lyle Goldstein

China, Asia, Chinese military, Great power competition, Naval power, North Korea, Nuclear weapons, Russia, South China Sea, South Korea, Taiwan, and Ukraine-Russia

Director, Asia Program

Lyle Goldstein is director of the Asia Program at Defense Priorities.

Lyle J. Goldstein oversees a range of studies that evaluate U.S. foreign policy and defense strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, including with respect to such key flashpoints as the Korean Peninsula, the South China Sea, the Sino-Indian border, and Taiwan. He maintains expertise in both Chinese and Russian military strategic development and also has knowledge regarding particular issues in the China-Russia relationship, including especially military cooperation and the Arctic and Central Asia.

Goldstein serves concurrently as director of the China Initiative and senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. At Brown, he is investigating the costs of great power competition with both China and Russia in association with the Costs of War Project at Watson. He is also assisting in the further development of Watson’s China Initiative. He teaches a lecture course on “War and Strategy in the 21st Century.”

In October 2021, Goldstein retired after 20 years of service on the faculty at the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) after being promoted by his peers to the rank of full professor. During his career at NWC, he founded the China Maritime Studies Institute and has been awarded the Superior Civilian Service Medal for this achievement. He has written or edited seven books on Chinese strategy and is currently finishing a book that examines maritime aspects of the China-Russia quasi-alliance.

Goldstein has a PhD from Princeton, an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a BA from Harvard. He is fluent in both Chinese and Russian languages and is studying Korean.