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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Afghan officials to meet Taliban ahead of U.S. troop withdrawal agreement

Friday, February 28, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats National Preparedness

Comments: 0

Afghan officials are set to meet Taliban members in Qatar on Friday ahead of a crucial agreement between the U.S. and Taliban negotiators that will set the timeline for the withdrawal of American troops who have been fighting in Afghanistan for 18 years.

A six-member delegation of junior ministers and a senior security official will hold preliminary talks with some Taliban leaders in Qatar's capital, Doha, two senior government officials in Kabul said, adding that the meeting was a crucial confidence-building mechanism between the warring sides.

A senior official in Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office said Ghani was reluctant to send a delegation to meet the Taliban before the U.S.-Taliban deal is formalized.

"But he now realizes that a meeting is crucial at this juncture. This golden opportunity cannot be lost," said the official, requesting anonymity.

Shepherding the Afghan government and Taliban towards intra-Afghan negotiations has been one of the biggest headaches for U.S. negotiators, according to western diplomats in Kabul and Doha.

The seven-day "Reduction in Violence" (RIV) pact that took effect on Feb. 22 and is set to culminate in the signing of an agreement between top U.S. and Taliban negotiators on Saturday in Doha, the location of the political headquarters of the hardline insurgent group.

The RIV period has passed off largely successfully, and the United States and Taliban look set to sign the agreement to establish a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops in exchange for guarantees from the Taliban not to allow militant groups such as al-Qaeda to operate in Afghanistan.

The U.S.-Taliban agreement, if inked on Saturday, would begin a phased withdrawal of American and coalition forces and would also require the Taliban to initiate a formal dialogue with the Afghan government and other political and civil society groups on a permanent nationwide ceasefire and power-sharing in post-war Afghanistan.

The Taliban now hold sway over half the country, and are at their most powerful since the U.S. invasion in 2001

Senior Taliban commanders in Doha and Afghanistan said once the deal is signed the group will release 1,000 Afghan prisoners, mostly security personnel and government employees who are in their custody in different parts of the country.

In exchange, the Taliban expects the Afghan government to release their 5,000 fighters.

"We will not join the intra-Afghan dialogue if the U.S. and Afghan did not honor their commitment to release our prisoners," said a senior Taliban commander in Doha.

Afghan broadcaster Tolo News said U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg were expected in Kabul ahead of the announcement of the declaration in Doha.

 

Photo: © Franz J. Marty/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images SHINDAND MILITARY BASE, HERAT, AFGHANISTAN - 2018/02/28: Afghan Commando beneath an Afghan national flag in Shindand Military Base, Herat province. Afghanistans elite military forces the Commandos and the Special Forces are one of the key elements in the Afghan and U.S. strategy to turn the grinding fight against the Taliban and other insurgents around. These pictures show the Commandos and Special Forces during training and in the field; also right before and after an operation in the restive western Afghan province of Farah. (Photo by Franz J. Marty/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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