Defending Our Island Home: An Asymmetric Approach to Taiwan’s Defense

IIPS is proud to present a new book: Defending Our Island Home: An Asymmetric Approach to Taiwan’s Defense!

In Defending Our Island Home, Admiral Lee Hsi-min, former Chief of the General Staff of Taiwan, presents a bold and urgent vision for safeguarding Taiwan against the growing threat of Chinese aggression. Drawing on decades of military leadership and strategic insight, Admiral Lee introduces the Overall Defense Concept (ODC)—a transformative approach that prioritizes agility, innovation, and asymmetric warfare over outdated conventional strategies.

IIPS worked closely with Admiral Lee to produce Defending Our Island Home, which is an abridged, translated, and updated version of Admiral Lee’s 2022 book The Overall Defense Concept: An Asymmetric Approach to Taiwan’s Defense (臺灣的勝算：以小制大的不對稱戰略，全臺灣人都應了解的整體防衛構想). This new, English-language version includes new material written by Admiral Lee specifically for this version as well as a foreword and afterword written by IIPS’s Chairman, The Honorable Randall G. Schriver, and Senior Director for Research, Michael Mazza, respectively.

Admiral Lee hopes that Defending Our Island Home will bring his groundbreaking ideas to an American audience, offering policymakers, military leaders, and scholars a rare window into Taiwan’s defense thinking. This volume explores how the United States can support Taiwan in building a credible deterrent—one that not only defends the island but helps preserve peace in the Indo-Pacific.

If Taiwan falls, the global order could fall with it. This book explains how Taiwan can stand firm—and why it must.