Policy Recommendations

Abstract

The volume concludes by offering a number of policy recommendations that would help to improve morale in the ROC armed forces and make it a social institution that garners more respect from the public. While most such studies focus on strategic recommendations and weapons purchases, what is provided here is essentially about creating a new military ethic, one that makes the military more relevant to today’s society while meeting its purpose of defending against external attack. The ethic and character of the ROC military is very much focused on the ideals expounded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the Three Principles of the People. While these are laudable ethical underpinnings for an organization with its roots in China, they are anachronistic in today’s Taiwan, and do not represent the values of modern young people. While there is very little agreement among the nation’s ethnic groups and political philosophies, there is one thing that unites Taiwan people of all stripes, be they Hoklo or Hakka, Mainlander or Taiwanese, and indigenous person or modern urbanite: the land. It is the land of Taiwan that represents home and hearth, and thus the focus of any cultural shift within the organization that is the ROC military should be one that focuses on the military’s purpose of defending this land. All other policy recommendations described in this chapter stem from this paradigm, whether it be how to handle conscription and training, or the establishment of youth programs and ethnic indigenous regiments.

Citation

Karalekas, D. (2018), "Policy Recommendations", Civil-Military Relations in Taiwan, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 161-180. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-479-420181013