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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.

USS McCampbell Transits Taiwan Strait Ahead of Taiwanese Presidential Inauguration

Friday, May 15, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats National Preparedness

Comments: 0

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG-85) transited the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, a week before Taiwan’s anti-China reunification president is inaugurated for a second term.

McCampbell’s transit of the narrow body of water separating mainland China from Taiwan is the latest in a series of passages by U.S. Navy ships intended to send the message to the Chinese leadership in Beijing.

“The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG-85) conducted a Taiwan Strait transit May 13 (local time), in accordance with international law,” Lt. Anthony Junco, a U.S. 7th Fleet spokesperson told USNI News. “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”

Along with what has become a nearly monthly Taiwan Strait transit, the U.S. Navy has sent vessels into the South China Sea with the express purpose of challenging territorial or economic influence claims made by China.

U.S. Navy ships conducted a Freedom of Navigation Operation near the disputed Paracel Island chain claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan and China. The government in Beijing uses the chain to support its claim to a straight territorial baseline around the island chain in conflict with international maritime law. China contends all water between island holdings are Chinese territorial waters, not international.

For weeks, U.S. Navy ships operated near a Panamanian-flagged drillship hired to research Malaysia. At the same time, in the same area, Chinese Coast Guard and Maritime Militia ships, presumably escorting a Chinese research vessel, tailed the Panamanian ship. The standoff is winding down now that the Panamanian-flagged drillship appears to have completed its survey, according to media accounts.

U.S. warships transiting the Taiwan Strait without notification draw negative reactions from Beijing. In March, when McCampbell steamed through the Taiwan Strait, Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense’s spokesman, issued a statement calling the transit “was very dangerous and said it sent the wrong message to Taiwan secessionists.”

The Chinese government’s long-term goal is to bring Taiwan into the fold under the leadership in Beijing. However, Taiwan’s incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen, and her Democratic Progressive party, are staunch advocates of Taiwanese independence. Her landslide victory in January was due to her platform of keeping Beijing at arm’s length, according to news reports, including an account by The Guardian.

The U.S. maintains a complicated relationship with Taiwan. U.S. policy does not officially support Taiwan becoming an independent nation, but the U.S. government does maintain strong “unofficial relations” with Taiwan, according to the U.S. State Department.

At the same time, since 1979, the U.S. has officially “recognized the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, acknowledging the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China,” according to the State Department.

Photo: U.S. Navy Seaman Danielle Clarke stands watch as the master helmsman on the bridge aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG-85) while conducting underway operations. Navy photo.

Link: USNI News

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