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.

India Blocks China’s Costly Belt and Road by Halting Entrance to Kashmir

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Economic Security

Comments: 0

India has provided the latest setback for the “China Pakistan Economic Corridor” (CPEC) by blocking the venture’s planned projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the Times of India (TOI) reported on Monday.

Part of China’s broader Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — a system by which China establishes economically predatory infrastructure projects in developing nations in an effort to widen its global reach — CPEC is now viewed by economic analysts as a “trillion-dollar blunder,” according to the newspaper.

There are a number of CPEC infrastructure projects currently under development in Pakistan. CPEC’s total value was originally estimated at $46 billion; this figure has now ballooned to an estimated $87 billion, with only a quarter of the proposed projects having been completed, according to the report.

With a debt quotient of $80 billion, CPEC has faced increasing criticism from domestic and foreign critics alike. According to TOI, the local government of Pakistani province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recently passed a resolution against CPEC after some of its infrastructure projects were slated to be built within the region, prompting concern from locals.

Now, India has become the latest entity to publicly stand up against CPEC, specifically in opposition to its proposed projects within Kashmir. India, Pakistan, and China all dispute parts of Kashmir, though China typically stays in the background of elevated tensions between India and Pakistan. India claims that Pakistan has illegally occupied that territory and has consistently objected to the carrying out of what it considers illegal activities, such as the construction of infrastructure projects by Pakistan and China, in the disputed region.

On May 13, Pakistan’s government signed a $5.8 billion contract with China to build the Diamer-Bhasha Dam in Gilgit-Baltistan, located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Responding to the proposed joint venture — part of the greater CPEC project — India’s Ministry of External Affairs said on May 14:

Our position is consistent and clear that entire territory of the [Indian] Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are, and will continue to be integral and inalienable part[s] of India. We have consistently conveyed our protests and shared concerns with both Pakistan and China on all such projects in the Indian territories under Pakistan’s illegal occupation.

Under international law, China is barred from constructing anything in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, as it legitimately pertains to the Indian state. The territory is accepted by the U.N. as Indian land, according to a 1948 resolution on Kashmir by the international governing body.

Photo: KENZABURO FUKUHARA/AFP/Getty Images

Link: https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/06/22/india-blocks-chinas-costly-belt-and-road-by-halting-entrance-to-kashmir/

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