Commonwealth Club Event: "Defending Taiwan"

Join the Commonwealth Club of California on April 27, 2026 to hear Eyck Freymann discuss his new book, Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War with China.

HOW TO WATCH:
This event is $10 for online tickets, and you must register at the link below, at which point you'll be emailed a link to the online event - https://commonwealthclub.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FVb00000CETfxMAH

NOTE: This event is free for members of the Commonwealth Club of California. Membership costs just $10/month and you can cancel at any time. To become a member, go to: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/membership

EVENT DESCRIPTION:
The first place many people looked following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was Taiwan, long in the sights of the communist government of mainland China, which has vowed to absorb the island nation. If bigger countries were once again subsuming smaller neighbors, what could keep an ever-stronger China from going to war with Taiwan? And will it be the tripwire to sparking a third world war, this time with the United States and China as the main players?

According to the Hoover Institution’s Eyck Freymann, Taiwan is where the uneasy peace between the United States and China will be tested—and maybe broken. In Beijing’s terms, "reunification" is inevitable. American military strength has preserved peace and stability for decades, but its advantages are eroding. Freemann says Beijing has found critical gaps in U.S. strategy and is working to squeeze, isolate and coerce Taiwan into submission without firing a shot. If deterrence fails, the consequences of a Taiwan crisis could be catastrophic, perhaps plunging the global economy into chaos, shattering U.S. alliances, and allowing China to dominate the region and reshape the world order.

Freemann explores this nightmare scenario and how to avoid it in his new book Defending Taiwan, presenting an integrated strategy to deter war with China and preserve an honorable peace. He draws on untranslated Chinese sources, cutting-edge military and economic analysis, and deep historical research to argue that Washington's deterrence strategy must extend beyond conventional military power and familiar threats of mutually assured destruction; America must work with allies to develop a bold new vision of technological and economic statecraft—and a plan to secure its interests if deterrence fails. He says the United States can deter China's full range of strategic options. but to do so it must integrate its military strength, economic leverage, technological leadership, and diplomatic influence into a single, coherent plan to prevent war.

Join us to hear a new grand strategy for ensuring a lasting stable U.S.-China relationship—and to preventing World War III.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER & MODERATOR:

• Eyck Freymann is a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University, where he directs the Allied Coordination Working Group. He is also a Non-Resident Research Fellow at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, the Institute of Geoeconomics in Tokyo, and the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College.
  He is the author of several previous books, including The Arsenal of Democracy: Technology, Industry, and Deterrence in an Age of Hard Choices (2025), and One Belt One Road: Chinese Power Meets the World (2021). He holds a doctorate from Oxford, masters degrees from Cambridge & Harvard, and a bachelors from Harvard, all in history and China studies.
• [Moderator TBA].

ABOUT THE EVENT HOST:
The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. Every year, they present more than 450 forums on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy. Their stated mission is to be the leading national forum open to all for the impartial discussion of public issues important to the membership, community and nation. To learn more, go to: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/who-we-are
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