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.

Australia Joins U.S. Navy to Patrol Disputed South China Sea amid Rising Tensions

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Bipartisianship

Comments: 0

Three U.S. warships in the South China Sea have been joined by a frigate supplied by ally Australia to patrol an area where a Chinese vessel is suspected to be illegally exploring for oil, officials said Wednesday.

The move came two days after China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Natural Resources released “standard” names for 80 geographical features in the resource-rich South China Sea, in an act claimed to be “reaffirming China’s sovereignty in the region.”

The U.S. supports Asian nations blocked by China from exercising control over their lawful territory by regularly sending warships and aircraft to operate in the contested areas.

Most recently, the U.S. sent two military aircraft to fly near Taiwan on April 13 after China conducted military drills in and around Taiwanese waters and airspace.

Now the U.S. Navy has confirmed the USS America amphibious assault ship and the USS Bunker Hill, a guided missile cruiser, were also operating in the South China Sea.

They were joined by Australia’s frigate HMAS Parramatta and a third U.S. vessel, the destroyer USS Barry, as part of a planned joint exercise, the Australian defence department said.

The U.S. Navy also confirmed the deployment of its assets:

The manoeuvring in the South China Sea was announced days after China bolstered its presence by setting up two administrative bodies on islands in the disputed water, dubbing the area “its youngest city”.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its own territory, even though parts of it are also claimed by six other countries and the claims have no standing under international law.

China is an international criminal according to a harsh July 2016 ruling by a tribunal at the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.

The judgement eviscerated all of China’s claims to the South China Sea and declared its construction of artificial islands and military bases in international waters in the region to be illegal.

In March, Beijing continued to ignore that international precedent by occupying artificial reefs in territory claimed by the Philippines and others.

Last year, HMAS Parramatta was part of an Australian Task Group that was closely tracked by the Chinese military as it made its way through the Indo-Pacific region.

Despite the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic in January, Australian officials have been closely watching as Beijing ramps up its activities in the strategically important region.

Earlier this month, Vietnam lodged an official protest with Beijing after the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a China Coast Guard vessel near the Paracel Islands.

In 2018 Australia claimed it had a “perfect right” to sail naval assets through the South China Sea. The assertion was made after the Chinese navy challenged three Australian warships on why they were in the area, as Breitbart News reported.

Photo: LSIS Tara Byrne/Royal Australian Navy

Link: https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/04/22/australia-joins-u-s-navy-to-patrol-disputed-south-china-sea-amid-rising-tensions/

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