| Summary: | 碩士 === 國防管理學院 === 國防決策科學研究所 === 88 === As a science, Geopolitics deals with the influence of geopolitical factors over a nation’s power, status, foreign policy, international politics and war. Its basic concept is to guide a nation on how to secure a favorable position in the international competition for power and peace, based upon the natural geographical terms that the nation possesses. From the viewpoint of Realism, international politics is politics about power. Whereas the state of anarchy in the international community, nations for the furtherance of their own security and interests desire to take hold of other areas in the world and while doing so, go to troubles to augment strength and to enlarge their own turf. This provides a glimpse of the implication that geopolitics bears over nations.
The NATO’s enlargement is a significant measure that the United States takes in the post-cold war era to shape a new international order. It sym-bolizes the vicissitude of power —-- the waning Russian influence; the build up of NATO strength. The US, by way of NATO, fortifies its politi-cal power and military forces in Europe. Farther in sight is its design to affect, if not to control, the Euro-Asia continent. In face of the new secu-rity situations in Europe, NATO can make use of adequate transformation, and actively court rapport with Russia and East Europe. From a collective defense framework, NATO might be evolving into an institution of re-gional collective security, with its new key missions to include crisis management, resolving military conflicts and advocating stability of the Euro-Atlantic area. An eastern-expanding NATO adds to the safety of the West European nations while at the same time causes Russia to feel un-easy─a very difficult position defined as security dilemma. For NATO’s enlargement to be successful, orchestrated measures such as confident building will have to be taken. Russia will have to be assured that NATO’s enlargement is not in any way against it.
NATO’s enlargement serves as an excellent example. Such areas as East Europe, Korea and Taiwan, which are clamped between two major pow-ers, faces at any given time the possibility of “being crushed.” Being closed in on by the US, Japan and PRC, the optimum option for Taiwan to maintain peace, security, and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait is to keep rapport with and contribute to the democratization of PRC. If, to be per-verse, the strategy of joining the US and Japan to stand off PRC were adopted, Taiwan would find itself perpetually in confrontation with PRC. It would be improbable to shake off the horror of living on the brink of a war. In terms of the cross-strait issues, therefore, when we meditate over the goal of our nation’s development and formulate the national strategy, the elements encompassing the geopolitics between Taiwan and PRC should be taken with priority into consideration.
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