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.

Venezuela's Juan Guaidó meets with Trump at the White House

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Bipartisianship

Comments: 0

Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, got a big push Wednesday, when he met with President Donald Trump at the White House for the first time since he recognized the young leader as the legitimate president of the South American country.

The meeting comes a day after Guaidó attended the State of the Union address Tuesday night as a guest of the White House and received a standing ovation when Trump introduced him as Venezuela’s “true and legitimate” leader. His attendance came as a surprise to many since his name was not listed as one of Trump’s guests. Guaidó had been seeking to meet with Trump for some time. 

A senior administration official pushed back on speculation that Trump had lost faith in Guaidó and was invited at the last minute. The official said when Guaidó left Venezuela the administration felt it would be a good opportunity to invite him and it had been approximately two weeks in the works. The administration had kept a close hold on the plans.

The official said there will be impactful measures within the next 30 days aimed at crippling Venezuela's current government under Nicolás Maduro.

During the address Tuesday, Trump told Guaidó, “Mr. President, please take this message back that all Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle for freedom.” He said Maduro's “grip on tyranny will be smashed and broken.”

Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza told reporters Wednesday morning that Trump is an “arrogant charlatan” and criticized the speech as “interventionist rhetoric.”

The senior administration official said Venezuela is a national security priority because of the destabilizing effect it has on its neighbors. The Trump administration is at best, halfway to achieving maximum pressure on Maduro and his government, said the official.

“Everything is an option,” to create pressure said the official, “whether it’s towards Russian entities that are supporting Maduro or others.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Guaidó met with Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, as well as other Republican senators at the Capitol.

Congressional Democrats, who also oppose Maduro’s government, criticized the administration's approach after the meeting.

Senator Chris Murphy D-Conn, tweeted that “Trump's Venezuela policy has been an utter failure, empowering Maduro and weakening the U.S. in our hemisphere and the world.”

He went on to say “some of us counseled holding back recognition of Guaidó as leverage to get Maduro to make concessions. But Trump played his most important card on day one, leaving him no room to maneuver.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi will hold a photo opportunity with Guaidó on Thursday.

Despite support, no change yet

In January 2019, Guaidó invoked the constitution as a legislative leader to assume interim presidency and declared Maduro a usurper. Maduro’s 2018 reelection, in which key opposition figures were barred from running, was rejected by the legislature, the U.S. and the European Union, among others.

The Trump administration was the first, among nearly 60 countries, to throw its weight behind Guaidó. Since then the U.S. has become Guaidó’s most important international ally. The Trump administration has sanctioned the state-run Venezuelan oil company PDVSA and taken other measures to pressure Maduro out of office.

Guaidó has not been able to deliver the change in Venezuela he has promised, and Maduro remains in power with military backing and control over most branches of the government.

Guaidó defied a travel ban and slipped out of Venezuela on Jan. 19, stopping in Colombia, Europe, and Canada with the aim of shoring up support. He met with world leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Guaidó held a rally in Miami on Saturday, home of the largest community of Venezuelans in the country. Florida is an important swing state for Trump in order to win reelection in 2020.

Venezuela, once one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries with vast oil and mineral resources, has been roiled in economic and political turmoil in recent years because of decades of corruption and mismanagement. Trump administration sanctions that prohibit exports of oil to the U.S. have not helped.

The country of 30 million people has the highest inflation in the world. Most of the country suffers from shortages of gasoline, running water, electricity and other basic services. An estimated 4.5 million Venezuelans have fled the country in recent years, comparable to war-torn Syria.

 

Photo: © Evan Vucci President Donald Trump walks to a meeting in the Oval Office with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido at the White House on Feb. 5, 2020.

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