Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Jedidiah Royal was among the attendees of the Ketagalan Forum this year. At the conference, he highlighted five key military challenges Taiwan should address.

Royal, who retired from the U.S. Department of Defense just a few days prior, traveled to Taiwan for the first time in order to attend the forum. During the last four years of his 25-year career, he served as the Senior Defense Official for Taiwan Security Assistance, coordinating and ensuring that the United States fulfilled its obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act to support Taiwan's defense.

According to Royal, the worst national defense scenario is having only a military strategy without a corresponding civil defense strategy. The second worst is having both strategies, but failing to connect them to one another. For that reason, he welcomed Taiwan's decision to conduct Urban Resilience Exercises during the Han Kuang exercises. He recommended that Taiwan continue holding such drills on a regular basis and even increase their frequency.

Royal pointed out that, unlike traditional strategies aimed at decisive victory, this year's Han Kuang exercises will focus on an erosion strategy, or a strategy of wearing down an adversary over time. Based on available intelligence assessments, he believes the strategy is feasible and praised Taiwan's senior national security officials for driving this transformation.

He urged Taiwan to focus on five key areas: 

1. Countering a Chinese joint island landing campaign,
2. breaking through sea and air blockades to enable external assistance,
3. protecting critical infrastructure,
4. maintaining persistent communications, and
5. sustaining support systems for civil society and public morale.

Finally, Royal stressed that Taiwan should quickly strengthen its defense logistics capabilities. He also urged faster decision-making in response to gray-zone operations, arguing that gray-zone activities and full-scale military conflict are closely connected rather than separate issues.

The Foreign Ministry and Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) jointly hosted the 10th Ketagalan Forum on Wednesday. This year's forum brought together 12 political leaders, legislators, experts, and scholars from nine countries across the Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and Latin America to discuss topics including democratic resilience, Indo-Pacific collective defense, and the restructuring of non-red supply chains.