Taiwan enters 2026 at a moment of profound political intensity, strategic uncertainty, and shifting geopolitical currents. At home, policy discourse is highly fluid. Episodes of institutional paralysis, contentious budget negotiations, and the political reverberations of the Great Recall have sharpened debates over governance and accountability. The opposition’s recalibration following the 2025 KMT chair election has added new layers to partisan competition, while the Lai Administration’s efforts to balance economic transformation with social welfare commitments continue to animate discussions about the nation’s development. Together, these dynamics have produced a domestic arena marked by both political contestation and remarkable civic engagement.

These debates unfold against a backdrop of mounting external pressure. China–Japan diplomatic frictions and Beijing’s increasingly ambitious military signaling—including large-scale exercises such as Justice Mission 2025—have heightened global anxieties about the future of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. At the same time, Taiwan’s foreign policy community is grappling with evolving international dynamics, including the United States’ intensified focus on Latin America and its more assertive rhetoric regarding the use of military intervention. These shifts have sparked vigorous discussion in Taipei about alliance signaling, democratic resilience, and the durability of Indo-Pacific stability amid competing global priorities.

To illuminate these intersecting forces, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies is convening a timely conversation with multidisciplinary experts to explore how Taiwan’s domestic political debates, security pressures, and diplomatic recalibrations are shaping its governance and strategic trajectory in 2026. We invite you to join us for this important and forward-looking discussion!

Panel I: Domestic Politics & Contestation in Taiwan

Lucy Best, Director of China Practice, Albright-Stonebridge Group

"Homes in Uncertain Times: Taiwan’s Housing Crisis and the Politics of Cross-Strait Tension," Yi-Ling Chen, Associate Professor of International Studies and Geography, the University of Wyoming

Kitsch Liao, Kitsch Liao, Associate Director of the Global China Hub, Atlantic Council

Panel II: Taiwan’s Foreign Relations & Policy Pivots

Bonnie Glaser, Managing Director of the Indo-Pacific Program, the German Marshall Funds

"US-Taiwan Relations in the First Year of the Second Trump Administration and Beyond,"
John Tai, Professorial Lecturer of International Affairs, the George Washington University

Leland Lazarus, Independent Consultant, Lazarus Consulting