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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.

Pompeo Urges U.N. to Extend Iran Arms Embargo

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats National Preparedness

Comments: 0

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the United Nations Security Council to extend a five-year ban on conventional weapons trade with Iran that is set to expire in October, while his Iranian counterpart warned of dire consequences of such an action.

The top U.S. diplomat urged the council, which convened in a virtual session to consider the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran, to act in service of its founding mission to ensure global peace and security.

Mr. Pompeo said the expiration of the embargo would enable Iran to threaten maritime trade, purchase Russian jet fighters for its own use and other technologies for its regional proxies, threaten regional economic stability, and emerge as an arms dealer for rogue states.

The secretary warned that an Iranian purchase of Russian-made aircraft would place “cities like Riyadh, New Delhi, Rome and Warsaw in Iranian crosshairs.”

Mr. Pompeo pointed to the U.N. secretary-general’s findings in a June 11 report that the weapons employed in September attacks on Saudi oil facilities, and those interdicted off the Yemeni coast in November and February, originated in Iran.

“Iran is already violating the arms embargo, even before its expiration date,” he said.

After Mr. Pompeo’s remarks, Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif accused the U.S. of seeking to harm the Iranian people and of destabilizing the Middle East through its military interventions.

“For the first time in history, a permanent member of the Security Council is punishing law-abiding states and private citizens for not violating a Council resolution,” he said, referring to Security Council action endorsing the 2015 agreement.

The five-year ban is set to expire Oct. 18, and several countries have challenged the U.S. push for its extension following the Trump administration’s 2018 withdrawal from the nuclear agreement.

Russia and China, permanent members of the Security Council that remain party to the nuclear deal and potential weapons sellers to Iran, have rejected U.S. demands for an extension.

Mr. Pompeo said the administration’s “overwhelming preference” is to work with the council to extend the embargo, saying the body “must reject extortion diplomacy.”

Mr. Zarif accused the U.S. of seeking to undermine multilateral institutions, and the agreement’s European signatories of threatening to weaken it. He described the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement as illegal, while thanking Russia and China for resisting the American campaign to further isolate Iran.

Representatives from several countries criticized the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, questioning Washington’s standing to call for a restoration of multilateral sanctions and urging the preservation of the deal.

China’s Zhang Jun said the 2015 agreement is “legally binding and should be effectively implemented,” and expressed his government’s opposition to an extension of the arms embargo.

U.K. envoy Jonathan Allen said “since May 2018 we have worked tirelessly” to preserve the Iran deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He cited the creation of a trade mechanism meant to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

Tuesday’s Security Council meeting played into Iran’s effort to exploit the policy rift between the U.S. and Europe on Iran, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow and Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that is critical of Iran.

Mr. Taleblu said Mr. Pompeo’s remarks signaled a more deliberate approach as the Europeans look to preserve the agreement amid Washington’s calls for a total transformation of Iran’s relationship to the world.

“It’s one thing to find a way to amend an arms embargo,” he said. “It’s another to actually be willing to reset the international baseline of pressure on Iran back to what existed from 2010 to 2015.”

Photo: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the U.N. Security Council to ‘reject extortion diplomacy.’ - PHOTO: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/pompeo-urges-u-n-to-extend-iran-arms-embargo-11593531943

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