Title of the book :
Edited by: Sabella Abidde
Publication date: April 2, 2026
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Total pages: 288 pages
Price: Hardcover, $120.00; Kindle $108
ISBN-10: 1666979228
ISBN-13: 978-1666979220
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, there have been several female Heads of State and Heads of Government including Sanae Takaichi (Japan), Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), Isabel Perón (Argentina), Elisabeth Domitien (Central African Republic), Eugenia Charles (Dominica), Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan), Corazon Aquino (Philippines), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia), Dilma Rousseff (Brazil); Park Geun-hye (South Korea), Christine Kangaloo (Trinidad and Tobago), Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand) and Margaret Thatcher (Britain).
President Tsai Ing-wen joined this epoch-making list when she was elected and assumed the presidency of the Republic of China (ROC/Taiwan) in 2016. Her historic presidency has been well documented by public intellectuals and scholars within and outside of Taiwan – amongst these is the recent edited volume by Professor Sabella Abidde of Alabama State University, Montgomery, titled, “Tsai Ing-wen and Taiwan: An Assessment of the First Administration, 2016-2020 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026).
In this first of two volumes, twelve scholars dissected President Tsai Ing-wen’s domestic agenda, foreign policy, and the broader implications of her first tenure on both the regional and global landscape. Several questions were asked and answered. For instance, what promises were made during the campaign, and which were kept or broken? What were some of the internal and external challenges her administration faced and was able to resolve? The book also examined the administration’s capacity to balance the hostilities emanating from the other side of the Taiwan Strait and the demands and ambiguities of US foreign policy. Finally, it assessed whether her administration was in tune with the changing undercurrents of an increasingly shifting society and whether her government’s policies resulted in a better political and socioeconomic reality for the Taiwanese people.
So far, the book has earned accolades from prominent scholars. Professor Gary Rawnsley, Head of the School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Lincoln, UK, for instance, asserts that “Tsai Ing-wen and Taiwan offer a timely, rigorous, and insightful analysis of Taiwan during President Tsai’s first term in office. A stunning collection of leading international scholars engages critically with the challenges and complexities of governance, identity, social issues, economic and foreign policy, and cross-Strait relations, making this volume essential reading for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Taiwan.”
And Professor Michael Hall, of Georgia Southern University, USA, posited that “This well-written collection of chapters heavily emphasizes the regional and international dimensions of President Tsai Ing-wen’s first administration. In their examination, the scholars consistently posit that, notwithstanding occasional mishaps, Taiwan’s first female president
performed admirably in her first term. Tsai’s popularity experienced fluctuations yet remained
resilient, withstanding the diplomatic realignment of seven nations that had formerly recognized the Republic of China. I eagerly await a companion volume organized by Abidde that examines Tsai’s second presidential administration.”
Overall, neither the editor nor the contributing scholars engaged in personal attacks or personal devotion to the president. Rather, the volume is an honest assessment of the president’s official duties and responsibilities as the head of a nation widely recognized as one of the most liberal, democratic, and developed in the world. The book adds to the growing academic literature that, in recent years, has paid much-needed attention to governance and leadership in Taiwan.
Author Bio
Sabella Abidde is a Professor of Political Science and a member of the graduate faculty at Alabama State University, Montgomery. He holds a BA in International Relations and an MSc in Educational Administration from Saint Cloud State University Minnesota; an MA in Political Science from Mankato State University Minnesota; and a PhD in African Studies, World Affairs, and Public Policy and Development Studies from Howard University.
He is the editor of two Book Series: African Governance, Development, and Leadership (Bloomsbury Academic) and the Africa-East Asia International Relations (Springer). His research, conference presentations, and publication interests straddle Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as Africa-China-Taiwan Relations in the Global South.
He is the editor of Tsai Ing-wen and Taiwan: An Assessment of the First Administration, 2016-2020 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026), the coeditor of US Foreign Policy Toward Taiwan: Ambiguity and Commitment in International Relations (Springer, 2025), and China and Taiwan in Latin America and the Caribbean: History, Power Rivalry, and Regional Implications (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023).
Dr. Abidde is a Member of the Board of Directors and a Lifetime Member of the Midwest Association for Latin American Studies (MALAS). He is also a Lifetime Member of the Association of Global South Studies (AGSS) and the American Association for Chinese Studies (AACS). He was a 2023 MOFA Taiwan Fellow, a 2024 Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow, and a Visiting Professor at Lagos State University, Nigeria.