“One of those rare scholarly works that offers readers both a deep well of knowledge and a thrilling read. American government officials and military officers will want to keep copies spring-loaded for emergencies. The strategy discussions will make you feel like you have a seat in the White House Situation Room. I didn’t want to put it down! ”
About Eyck Freymann
Eyck Freymann works on strategies to preserve peace and protect U.S. interests and values in an era of systemic competition with China. He is the author of several books, including The Arsenal of Democracy, One Belt One Road, and the forthcoming Defending Taiwan.
Dr. Freymann is a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University, where he directs the Allied Coordination Working Group. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the U.S. Naval War College, China Maritime Studies Institute; the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy; and the Institute of Geoeconomics in Tokyo. He also advises businesses and asset managers at Greenmantle, a consultancy.
He writes the Integrated Strategy newsletter and comments frequently in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, War on the Rocks, The Wire China, and The Atlantic, among other venues, focusing on bipartisan approaches to pressing national security issues. His scholarly work on these topics has appeared in The China Quarterly and Texas National Security Review and is forthcoming in International Security.
Before Hoover, Dr. Freymann held fellowships at Harvard and Columbia. He holds four degrees in history and China Studies from Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard.
“The question isn’t whether China will move to subdue Taiwan, but when and how. In Defending Taiwan, Eyck Freymann offers a comprehensive tutorial on every aspect of this complex and immensely consequential crisis scenario—and a compelling approach to deter it.”
Integrating Allied Strategy
“Military deterrence alone will fail without unprecedented allied coordination. Japan must take the lead. Defending Taiwan is a seminal, timely, and readable book—and an essential read for anyone committed to preserving peace.”
“The future of Taiwan may decide the shape of global geopolitics for the next hundred years and beyond, and yet academic scholarship has been slow to catch up. Eyck Freymann is at the forefront of an emerging group of scholar-strategists turning their minds to this problem—and doing so with great skill.”
Preparing for Crisis
“By far the best guide to deterring and, if necessary, prevailing in a naval and air conflict in the Indo-Pacific. For policymakers, practitioners, and pundits alike . . . this book is the touchstone for what lies ahead.”
“We ignore this book’s lessons at our peril.”
“Taiwan is the most dangerous flashpoint in the world and Eyck Freymann’s book is the most comprehensive analysis of what can be done about it. It is the first account that integrates economic analysis with national defense to address, as he puts it, ‘how to restructure the global economy if the world’s manufacturing superpower goes rogue.”
“Bromley and Freymann show that quick, sweeping decoupling from China is not a credible option in light of the country’s importance to the global economy. Instead, they propose a carefully reasoned, step-by-step approach that they label ‘avalanche decoupling.’”
Bromley and Freymann explain why America should be wary of a “far blockade” of China. Successful economic warfare works with neutral countries, not against them.
Bromley and Freymann present their “Day One” economic contingency plan in Washington
China scholarship
“A brilliant book—lucid, sober and thoughtful in its conclusions, it deserves to be read widely. Eyck Freymann cuts through the hype and brings light, not heat, to understanding how China combines diplomacy and economics. With a huge range of sources, he shows that One Belt One Road is likely to be neither a new Chinese empire nor simply a trade network. Essential reading.”
“Eyck Freymann is our guide, and his beautifully written book escorts us by land and sea to Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Greece, and beyond . . . As the Guide Michelin notes when it awards three stars: this book ‘is worth a special journey.’”
Fresh insights from untranslated Chinese sources
The Warming War
A global geopolitical history of climate change, from the Cold War to the present.
Book under contract with Princeton University Press, forthcoming spring 2027.
