A military helicopter flies over the waters of Agana Bay in Hagatna, Guam, on Aug. 10, 2015. (Tiffany Tompkins-Condie/McClatchy DC/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The US territory of Guam’s proximity to our adversaries puts it in the shadow of the threat of missiles from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The US has a vital interest and an obligation to ensure Guam’s protection. A new Hudson Institute report—with contributions from Hudson Senior Fellows Rebeccah Heinrichs, Bryan Clark, and Timothy A. Walton, as well as from Matthew Costlow, Patty-Jane Geller, Peppi DeBiaso, Oriana Skylar Mastro, and Blake Herzinger—addresses this challenge, offering a variety of analyses and solutions for how to handle the threat. 

Read more below from the introduction to this report.

Key Insights

1. Guam Is in a Strategic Location but Is Vulnerable

Guam constitutes an indispensable strategic hub for the United States. The largest of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific, it allows the US to project power within the Indo-Pacific. Guam is home to Andersen Air Force Base, from which F-22 Raptors and strategic bombers project US power, and to the deep-water port Apra Harbor, which plays a critical role in US Navy missions that keep trade routes open. The island’s strategic value to the United States and its proximity to North Korea and the PRC make it a prime target of missile attack by these US adversaries. Of particular concern, however, is the threat that possible Chinese long-range missile strikes pose.

2. China’s Ambitions Threaten Guam

The PRC seeks to supplant the US as the world’s preeminent power. One key to achieving this ambition is transforming the Indo-Pacific from a free and open region under a US-led system into one that is Beijing-centric, and Beijing controlled. If China succeeds, this would prevent the US from ensuring the safe commerce in international waters that is essential to the health of the US economy. It would also compromise the credibility of US security commitments to critical regional allies. The likely flashpoint of a US-PRC military conflict would be a Chinese attempt to conquer democratic Taiwan. In this scenario, Guam would constitute a critical forward location for US operations to defend Taiwan.

3. Guam’s Defense Is an Imperative, but Time Is Not on America’s Side

Maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific constitutes a vital US interest and a necessity for US assurances and commitments to US allies. These security guarantees, backed by US resolve and military power, underpin the US-led order regionally and globally. Moreover, Guam is not only a key strategic hub that is vital to American security and prosperity, but it is also a US territory that is home to US citizens. Guam’s defense is therefore imperative. Fighting from and for Guam is challenging but eminently achievable, and America must strengthen its defenses now to dissuade the PRC from initiating aggressions against it. However, time is not on our side, so we must move quickly.

Quotes may be edited for clarity and length. 

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