On Tuesday (Sept 8), the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club will be organizing a discussion featuring two prominent experts in the field of military and security studies: Alessio Patalano and Oriana Skylar Mastro.
Prior registration is necessary: https://forms.gle/4zqsLU78QdDijFaq8
EVENT DETAILS
Date: September 8 (Tue)
Time: 2.00pm (Check in begins at 1.30pm; the event will start at 2pm sharp)
Location: NCCU Center for Public and Business Administration Education (臺北市大安區永康里金華街187號)
Fee: NT$400 for non-members of TFCC; free entry for TFCC members
EVENT SUMMARY
China is intensifying its pressure around Taiwan through expanded air and naval operations and People’s Liberation Army exercises, driving a mass military build-up. Meanwhile, Beijing’s mass deployment of its coast guard and other vessels to enforce its territorial claims and rebrand maritime aggression as routine police work presents a fresh challenge for Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Joseph Wu warned recently.
The discussion with Professor Patalano and Dr Mastro looks at Taiwan’s defense reforms, China’s military capabilities, and the impact of the 2026 wars on the transformation of warfare at sea.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Alessio Patalano
Alessio Patalano is Professor of War & Strategy in East Asia at the Department of War Studies (DWS), and Co-Director of the Centre for Grand Strategy (CGS) at King’s College London (KCL). He specializes in maritime strategy and doctrine, Japanese military history and strategy, East Asian security, and European defense and foreign policy. Prof Patalano has extensive international experience in academic and military engagement, and policy advice. He taught at the UK Joint Command and Staff Services College (JSCSC), and held research positions at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the IRIS in Paris, and for KOMATSU Corporation, with responsibility to deliver timely high-impact risk analysis. He was visiting professor at the Italian Naval War College (ISMM), and held affiliations at Aoyama Gakuin University, the National Defense Academy, the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), and at the Japan Maritime Command and Staff College (JMCSC). Prof Patalano is an academic advisor to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and was chair of the maritime strategy group of the Secretary of State’s Office for Net Assessment and Challenge (SONAC) at the UK Ministry of Defence.
Oriana Skylar Mastro
Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Policy Lab at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Courtesy Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, and coercive diplomacy. She is also a nonresident scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was previously an assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown University. Mastro continues to serve as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force Reserve for which she currently works at the Pentagon as Deputy Chief of Reserve China Global Strategy. For her contributions to U.S. strategy in Asia, she won the Individual Reservist of the Year Award in 2016 (CGO), 2022 (FGO), and was also awarded the Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command 2025 Annual Award (FGO). She has published widely, including in International Security, Security Studies, Foreign Affairs, Journal of Strategic Studies, The Washington Quarterly, the Economist and the New York Times. Her most recent book, Upstart: How China Became a Great Power (Oxford University Press, 2024), evaluates China’s approach to competition and was awarded a Silver Medal at the 2026 Axiom Business Book Awards. Her book, The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime, (Cornell University Press, 2019), won the 2020 American Political Science Association International Security Section Best Book by an Untenured Faculty Member. She holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.