Episode 189: “Ukraine Explained, Taiwan Explained” with Dr Stephen Bryen

Russian’s war on Ukraine, and China’s aim to take over Taiwan. Joining me is one the wisest national security experts around, Dr Stephen Bryen. With 50 years of experience in foreign relations and national security, he’s seen it all. Called the Yoda of the arms trade, he was the Pentagon's top cop, the man whose job it was to ensure that sensitive technology would be kept from enemies, potential enemies and questionable allies. Stephen is the driving force behind the Center for Security Policy’s just published Stopping a Taiwan Invasion. It’s proposals, if adopted, will discourage any attack from China and strengthen peace and security in the Pacific. I’ve a lot of questions, and Stephen provides answers. And some deep insights. Was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine inevitable, or did the we provoke it? Why is Russia’s invasion failing? If Putin’s ousted, what are the odds that someone much worse takes over? How concerned is the veteran intelligence community that we could lurch into a nuclear war over Ukraine? Shouldn’t the Biden administration tell the Europeans and tell Zelensky, that it's time to sit down and figure this out? China is running a dedicated campaign to “uproot the rules based order that has existed in the Indo Pacific region since the end of World War II”. China is mounting its largest military buildup in history. China is ramping up its ambitions to take over Taiwan. And Joe Biden says we’ll go to war to prevent it. How would we win this war? Who would our allies be? Why would we now have more than ever? Why is Taiwan a much bigger issue for the U.S. than Ukraine? What lessons have the Chinese learned from Ukraine? What’s behind President Xi’s lockdown of Shanghai? Has Joe Biden finally gotten something right in drawing the line on Taiwan? There’s a lot more packed into this episode with Dr Stephen Bryen. If you’re looking for an easy-to-understand primer about what’s at stake for America in Ukraine and Taiwan, this is a great place to start.