The Ministry of National Defense should consider how to more effectively use senior military professionals. Apart from nurturing talent, professors at the National Defense University (NDU) can assist the ministry in strategic planning and defense policy analysis. If Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR) doctorate holders were effectively recruited, the institute would become a world-renowned think tank for cross-strait military research
Recently, five Chung Cheng Institute of Technology academics at the NDU applied to be discharged. All of them earned their doctorates from prestigious institutions, and three planned to continue their careers at other universities after being promoted to full professor or colonel.
However, the university rejected their requests, which aroused doubts about obstructing their career and depriving them of the right to work.
Later, legislators became involved and held a press conference. They told the NDU to approve the professors’ applications before Aug. 16 to avoid contravening their employment rights.
The NDU is the largest military academy in Taiwan. It aims to nurture talent in many aspects: strategic planning, army tactics, defense technology, resources management, and legal and political warfare.
It is not easy to nurture quality talent. However, these five professionals chose to leave the military academy despite having three to nine years before their term of service ends.
They are specialists in science and technology and were funded by the government. This is not only a brain drain in the university, but also in the ministry.
The government should not overlook this important issue.
Senior management positions in the university, including the president, vice president and education chief, are filled by an admiral, lieutenant general and major general respectively, but the term of service is short, which does not favor reform and development at the university.
The NDU has had 11 presidents in the past 20 years. Only three of them held the position for more than two years and many resigned after less than one year. It was the same for vice presidents. Many left in three to six months.
The term of service needs to be longer for a president to push through reforms or to gain insight into long-standing problems.
I suggest that the ministry create a “permanent civil vice president” position by amending the Organization Regulations of the National Defense University (國防大學組織規程).
The position holder would assist the president in handling school affairs and military professors’ problems and needs, and help to nurture the university’s top academic researchers and strategists.
This is not an exceptional case of brain drain. Taiwan should take the problem seriously to avoid losing more senior military talents.
The ministry could offer job opportunities for those who want to leave the university. Departments and agencies in the ministry and the INDSR are places where they can give full play to their capabilities.
There should be a plan to fully make use of these high-tech talents, such as by allowing them to stay in the national defense community so that they can contribute to our country with their military expertise.
This is a huge challenge for the civilian minister to get right.
Yao Chung-yuan is an adjunct professor and former deputy director of the Ministry of National Defense’s strategic planning department.
Translated by Fion Khan
The war virus unleashed by Russian President Vladimir Putin has reached the Korean Peninsula, raising alarm. By labeling his invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation,” Putin has revived a territorial conquest reminiscent of a bygone era, casting himself as a modern-day czar. Few could have imagined such a brutal war in Europe, which has resulted in 500,000 casualties, including 120,000 Russian soldiers. The more alarming issue is that Putin’s barbaric actions have not ended there. By involving North Korea, he has now heightened the risk of war in Asia, too. The newly signed North Korea-Russia treaty, which includes
War, possibly global, will define the coming decade — so it is crucial that Taiwanese decide now what their freedom and their lives are worth — perhaps starting with a defense budget of 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The force that threatens Taiwan, the Communist Party of China (CCP) and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA), asserts that a free, or even worse, an “independent” Taiwan is the greatest threat to the CCP’s dictatorship. Accordingly, they are prepared to kill Taiwanese by the millions, which also will initiate their longer war against democracies. Should it succeed, Chinese sources are all but openly
Russian President Vladimir Putin probably believed in his heart that after invading Ukraine it would be left with no choice but to take a beating with no means of fighting back. He likely believed Ukraine would use up all of its might to defend itself and be left with no energy to turn the fight around and into Russia. He was relaxed and unburdened. Regardless of which direction the war would take, the fight would never leave Ukrainian territory. The Russian public believed the same thing and did not concern themselves with the war, with some even going so far
Oil, copper, soybeans and a handful of others monopolized the attention — but of all commodities, the humble lump of iron ore benefited the most from the Chinese economic boom of the past 25 years. It was an astonishing bonanza: From the late 1990s to earlier this year, iron ore prices jumped nearly 10-fold, more than any other major commodity; traded volume tripled; Australian commodity tycoons become billionaires; mining companies turned, even briefly, into Wall Street darlings; and mighty legal battles broke for control of the last untapped mineral deposits. Now, it is over: The greatest commodity boom thus far of the