THE GREATEST IMPACT THE END OF THE Cold War and the breakup of the former Soviet Union have had on Taiwan1 is the disappearance of ideological barriers to international relations and the growing importance of economic power in the newly emerging international system. That is true despite the ability of the People’s Republic of China to exclude Taiwan from international organizations, such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, and to prevent it from normalizing diplomatic relations with other countries. Russia and the newly independent republics of the former Soviet Union offer Taiwan an opportunity to break out of its international isolation through pragmatic, flexible “dollar diplomacy.”
