Pre-flight Prep, A Pod for the Ma'am — The Brief

A pre-flight briefing made for one person: the program manager carrying her team's trust across the Pacific. Two org charts, one strait. On one side, the People's Republic — a single decision-maker who has fired nearly his entire military high command and left the body that runs the world's largest army with two active members. On the other, Taiwan — a democracy so divided that its own legislature halved the president's defense budget and benched its Constitutional Court, then survived the largest recall campaign any democracy has ever attempted. Same facts as the reality-show cut; this is the straight read. Sourced; the analysis is Anna Dudley's.