News - Category Asia Pacific

More Than a Numbers Game: Comparing US and Chinese Landpower in the Pacific Requires Context
July 22, 2025 — As the US Army organizes, trains, and equips for an unforeseen future, service decisions should create or amplify relative operational advantages over the US military’s rising foe—the People’s Liberation Army. Discerning critical differences between American and Chinese land forces is a prerequisite for such efforts...

Deterrence Gap: Avoiding War in the Taiwan Strait
January 5, 2024 — The various deterrents that used to discourage Beijing from invading Taiwan have decayed, and at the same time China’s leaders face fewer restraints than ever before. Even so, if interlocking deterrents can be developed for the short, medium, and long terms, and peace reinvigorated, war may yet be avoided...

Americans and the Dragon: Lessons in Coalition Warfighting from the Boxer Uprising
May 17, 2023 — Mitchell G. Klingenberg — Monograph by the US Army War College, US Army War College Press, Strategic Studies Institute — "Drawing from archival materials at the US Army Heritage and Education Center and the United States Military Academy at West Point, numerous published primary sources, and a range of secondary sources, this monograph offers an overview of the China Relief Expedition from June 1900 to the moment of liberation in August. Its considerations range from the geopolitical to the strategic and down to the tactical levels of war. US forces partnered alongside the combined naval and land forces of multiple nations, thus constituting the first contingency, expeditionary, and multinational coalition in American military history..."...

China's Future Military Capabilities
April 26, 2023 — Roger Cliff — Monograph by the US Army War College, US Army War College Press, Strategic Studies Institute — "The 2022 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America identifies China as the “pacing challenge” for the US military. This monograph examines the process by which China’s military capabilities are developed, the capabilities China’s military is seeking to acquire in the future, and the resulting implications for the US military. To date, all the extant studies have merely described the capabilities the People’s Liberation Army is currently acquiring. This monograph goes further by drawing on the Chinese military’s publications to identify and discuss the capabilities the People’s Liberation Army seeks to acquire in the future..."...

PLA Logistics and Sustainment: PLA Conference 2022
February 3, 2023 — George R. Shatzer, Roger D. Cliff — Conference Papers by the US Army War College, US Army War College Press, Strategic Studies Institute — "The US Army War College People’s Liberation Army Conference (PLA) Conference was held March 31 to April 2, 2022, at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The conference focused on PLA logistics and sustainment. As the PLA continues to build and modernize its combat forces, it is important to examine if the capabilities meant to support combat operations are also being developed."...

China, Europe and the Pandemic Recession: Beijing’s Investments and Transatlantic Security
May 4, 2022 — John R. Deni, Chris Alden, Erik Brattberg, Roger Cliff, Mark Duckenfield, R. Evan Ellis, Nicholas Nelson, Lauren Speranza — Collaborative Study by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press — "The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has unleashed an immense shock to the global economy. In Europe, gross domestic product has fallen, and unemployment has risen. China might take advantage of the crisis—just as it did in the wake of the global financial crisis a decade ago. As part of its broader national security strategy, China might again use its sovereign wealth fund, government-affiliated companies, and nominally private Chinese firms to provide necessary liquidity in Europe. In doing so, Beijing could take advantage of Europe’s economic difficulties to obtain sensitive technologies, build soft power, and acquire militarily significant infrastructure."...

The People of the PLA 2.0
July 23, 2021 — The People of the PLA 2.0 — Roy D. Kamphausen — Monograph by the US Army War College, US Army War College Press, Strategic Studies Institute — "The 27th annual People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Conference—“The People in the PLA” 2.0—revisited a theme first explored at the 2006 conference but understudied since. This volume examines how the structure, education, training, and recruitment of PLA personnel have changed in the last decade and in the Xi Jinping era."...