Phillip Saunders: How safe is Taiwan and for how long?

Phillip C. Saunders, Ph.D. Director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs and Distinguished Research Fellow at National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies

Dr. Phillip C. Saunders is Director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs and a Distinguished Research Fellow at National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies. He previously worked at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he directed the East Asia Nonproliferation Program from 1999-2003, and served as an officer in the United States Air Force from 1989-1993. Dr. Saunders received an A.B. in History from Harvard University and an MPA and PhD from the Princeton School of International and Public Affairs. Dr. Saunders has edited or co-edited eight books on Asian security issues, including The PLA Beyond Borders: Chinese Military Operations in Regional and Global Context (NDU Press, 2021), Chairman Xi Remakes the PLA (NDU Press, 2019) and PLA Influence on China’s National Security Policymaking (Stanford University Press, 2015). He is also co-author with David Gompert of The Paradox of Power: Sino-American Strategic Restraint in an Era of Vulnerability (NDU Press, 2011).

Dr. Saunders previously testified at the Commission’s June 2020 hearing, “A ‘World-Class’ Military: Assessing China’s Global Military Ambitions” and February 2015 hearing, “China’s Space and Counterspace Programs.”

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