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.

US Envoy Working to Resuscitate Flagging Afghan Peace Deal

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Categories: ASCF News National Preparedness Bipartisianship

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The first visit to Kabul by Washington’s peace envoy since Afghanistan's squabbling political leadership reached a power-sharing agreement comes amid increased violence blamed mostly on an Islamic State affiliate that has been targeted in stepped-up U.S. bombing.

Zalmay Khalilzad, in a flurry of tweets Thursday, told of his meetings in Doha earlier in the week with Taliban representatives and on Wednesday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and fellow leader Abdullah Abdullah. All were aimed at resuscitating a U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed in February.

Khalilzad returned to Washington late Wednesday.

Khalilzad called for a reduction in violence by all sides in Afghanistan's protracted conflict that has kept America militarily engaged for 19 years. He also said too much time has been wasted getting to the second and critical phase of the peace deal, which calls for talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan's political leadership.

Abdullah will head those efforts as part of the deal he signed with Ghani to end their monthslong dispute over who won Afghanistan's presidential election last September. He conceded the win to Ghani but as part of a power sharing agreement.

U.S. President Donald Trump said again last week that American soldiers have wrongly been tasked with policing the country and called on Afghanistan to step up.

The U.S. has about 12,000 soldiers deployed to Afghanistan, split between counter-terrorism and the NATO-led Resolute Support's 16,500 troop mission, which trains and aids Afghanistan's National Security Forces. Washington currently pays about $4 billion annually to keep Afghanistan's military in fighting form.

U.S. Department of Defense officials have told The Associated Press their biggest worry in Afghanistan is an increasingly active IS affiliate headquartered in the east. The group has ties to Middle Eastern affiliates as well as militant groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Chinese Uighur group, East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, say the IS affiliate in Afghanistan has been linked to foiled plots to attack America in recent years. The U.S. also blamed IS for a brutal attack on a maternity hospital earlier this month in Kabul that left 24 people dead, including two infants and several mothers.

The increased IS activity in Afghanistan has added urgency to U.S. efforts to resuscitate the peace deal, which commits the Taliban to fight terrorist groups in Afghanistan. The same Department of Defense officials said they want the Taliban in the battle to rout IS from Afghanistan.

Without intra-Afghan negotiations, the cease-fire Washington wants between the Taliban and the government won’t happen .

Taliban representatives say a cease-fire will be on the agenda in any intra-Afghan talks, which were to start by mid-March. The delay has been blamed on Afghanistan’s squabbling leadership in Kabul and disruptions in prisoner releases, which were promised as part of the peace deal ahead of intra-Afghan negotiations.

In his tweets, Khalilzad called for the prisoner release to be completed. He also reiterated he is seeking Taliban assistance with U.S. citizens missing in Afghanistan, including U.S. contractor Mark Frerichs who disappeared in January. Several Taliban leaders contacted by The AP said they are not holding Frerichs and have told Khalilzad repeated times.

Suhail Shaheen, Taliban spokesman in Doha, said Wednesday the Taliban are committed to the deal and demanded its prisoners be released.

Photo: In this May 20, 2020, photo, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, and fellow leader under a recently signed power-sharing agreement, Abdullah Abdullah, center, hold a meeting with U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad aimed at resuscitating a U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed in February, at the Presidential Palace, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (The Presidential Palace via AP)

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/05/21/world/asia/ap-as-afghanistan-peace-deal.html

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