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.

Report: Large Chinese Naval Base in Djibouti Nears Completion

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Economic Security

Comments: 0

China is now close to completing the construction of a large naval base in Djibouti. Forbes magazine reported Monday that the base will soon be ready to receive large warships and possibly aircraft carriers, describing it as a “modern-day fortress built from scratch.”

China began construction on the base in 2016, leaving its walls largely complete by the following year. Since then, the base has been built up into a seemingly impenetrable military fortress with multiple layers of defense.

Among the many layers of security are base walls made out of Hesco Style barriers with razor wire running along the top. As explained by Forbes’s H.I. Sutton:

Hesco barriers are wire frames filled with giant sandbags. They are commonly used by Western forces in Afghanistan and Iraq as the main walls of fortified bases. Here they are relegated to just being an outer wall.Inside the Hesco wall is the main wall built out of concrete. It has crenelations, meaning the up-and-down style battlements familiar from medieval castles. There are also gun loops, which are holes to fire weapons through. And there are tall towers on the corners.

As well as the physical defensive layers, the base is also reportedly housing marine forces and armored vehicles, including ZBD-09 infantry fighting vehicles, all equipped automatic cannons, anti-tank missiles, and high-caliber guns.

Despite its population of around 850,000, Djibouti is already home to military bases from the United States, Japan, and France, the country’s former colonial rulers, although none of them come close to comparing with size and modernness the Chinese base. Djibouti is located in far eastern Africa, offering easy access to the Arabian Peninsula.

Like many of its African neighbors, Djibouti is also already home to some of the numerous Chinese-led infrastructure projects that employ more than one million Chinese workers across the continent.

Although most analysts believe the base is part of a wider effort by Beijing to achieve economic and dominance around the world, China insists that its primary role will be providing assistance to Chinese warships operating in the region in anti-piracy and humanitarian operations.

“The base will ensure China’s performance of missions, such as escorting, peace-keeping and humanitarian aid in Africa and West Asia,” state media noted in 2017. “The base will also be conducive to overseas tasks including military cooperation, joint exercises, evacuating and protecting overseas Chinese and emergency rescue, as well as jointly maintaining the security of international strategic seaways.”

Photo: AP Photo/Andy WongLink: https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/05/18/report-large-chinese-naval-base-djibouti-nears-completion/

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