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.

Top Pentagon General Meets With Taliban to Prod Afghan Peace Talks

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Categories: ASCF News National Preparedness Bipartisianship

Comments: 0

The Pentagon’s top officer met with Taliban officials in Qatar this week as part of an unprecedented effort to spur stalled peace talks that could help end the nearly 20-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with members of the Taliban in Doha on Tuesday in hopes of persuading the group to stop fighting and move quickly toward a peace accord with the government of Afghanistan. Talks between the two sides were suspended earlier this month after disagreements over negotiating details.

The meeting came as Taliban-instigated violence is on the rise, military officials said, and just weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

Gen. Milley met with Taliban officials in June in a session that wasn’t previously disclosed. That meeting was the first time a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had met with Taliban leaders and negotiators.

After Tuesday’s meeting with the Taliban in Doha, Gen. Milley flew to Kabul, where he discussed the peace talks with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani. Gen. Milley declined to discuss details of either talks.

Afghan officials acknowledged in a statement that Gen. Milley and President Ghani met but didn’t provide additional details. The names of the Taliban officials who met with Gen. Milley couldn’t be immediately learned.

“The most important part of the discussions I had with both the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan was the need for an immediate reduction in violence,” Gen. Milley said in an interview. “Everything else hinges on that.”

Gen. Milley disclosed both of this week’s meetings—with the Taliban in Doha and with President Ghani in Kabul—more than two days after they occurred, citing security concerns.

The visits took place as the U.S. is scrambling to reduce the number of American troops in Afghanistan from about 4,500 to 2,500 by mid-January, under an order by President Trump.

Mr. Biden has said he wants to draw down U.S. troops in Afghanistan while leaving a residual force to address terrorist threats.

Violence in Afghanistan has continued to flare, particularly due to fighting in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, putting the peace talks in jeopardy, said Army Gen. Austin Miller, the top commander in Afghanistan.

Military officials and some experts believe now is the opportunity to make a peace deal, before a Biden administration takes office.

“The higher the violence, the higher the risk, and I also believe it’s an opportunity that should not be squandered,” Gen. Miller told reporters in Kabul Wednesday.

Photo: Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, left, and Gen. Austin Miller, the top commander in Afghanistan, on Wednesday. - ROBERT BURNS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-pentagon-general-meets-taliban-leaders-in-qatar-11608208008

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