ABSTRACT
Many achievements of Taiwan’s defense reform to date in fact emanated from Legislator Chen Shui-bian’s ideas. Indeed, many parts of Taiwan’s National Defense Law (passed in 2000) were grounded in his draft of the National Defense Organization Law of 1991 – an ice-breaking initiative regarding defense organization reform at the time. He and his staff colleague, Chen-Heng Ko (now Deputy Secretary-General of the National Security Council), published a White Paper entitled Black Box of Defense in 1992, a 500-page volume that exhibited their comprehensive vision of future Taiwan’s defense reform. Even today, that volume is still essential for an understanding, or moreover an undertaking, of Taiwan’s defense reform.
