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.

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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.

Ecuador navy 'on alert' as 260-strong Chinese fleet nears Galapagos Islands

Monday, August 10, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats National Preparedness

Comments: 0

A large fleet of some 260 Chinese fishing vessels has been spotted in the waters surrounding the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, the country’s navy officials said last week.

The Ecuadorian Navy said it has increasing patrolling to ensure the Chinese ships do not enter the exclusive economic zone around the Galápagos Islands, where 19th-century British explorer Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution, Reuters reported.

“We are on alert, conducting surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017,” Ecuador’s Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin said at a press conference. Three years ago, a Chinese ship was apprehended in the Galápagos Marine Reserve carrying 300 tons of marine wildlife -- mostly sharks, including the hammerhead, which is near extinction.

“There is a corridor that is international waters, that’s where the fleet is located,” Jarrin added.

The Galápagos – as well as an about 188-mile radius of the surrounding ocean waters – was designated a Unesco world heritage site in 1978 for its unique marine wildlife and biodiversity. The Chinese fleet is sitting about 200 miles from the nine-island archipelago in international waters, The Guardian reported.

Former Ecuadorian environment minister, Yolanda Kakabadse, along with Roque Sevilla, a former mayor of Ecuador's capital, Quito, told The Guardian on Monday that they were developing a “protection strategy” to ask the Chinese fleet not to return, enforce international agreements protecting migratory species and extend the exclusive economic zone to a 350-mile radius from the islands.

“This fleet’s size and aggressiveness against marine species is a big threat to the balance of species in the Galápagos,” Kakabadse said. To that sentiment, Sevilla echoed: “Unchecked Chinese fishing just on the edge of the protected zone is ruining Ecuador’s efforts to protect marine life in the Galápagos.”

Chinese fishing vessels annually come to the international waters around the Galapagos, but this year, the fleet is significantly larger than before and has come within a closer range of the islands.

Ecuador President Lenín Moreno tweeted his support in preserving the Galápagos Islands on Saturday, writing in Spanish: “We will work in a regional position to defend and protect the Exclusive Economic Zone around the Galápagos Marine Reserve, one of the richest fishing areas and a hotbed of life for the entire planet.”

Photo and Link: https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-ship-fleet-galapagos-islands-ecuador-navy-alert

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