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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.

Azerbaijan, Iran agree to mend ties ‘through dialogue’

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Categories: ASCF News Terrorism

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/13/azerbaijan-iran-agree-to-mend-ties-through-dialogue

The breakthrough came after talks between Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov (pictured) and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian [File: Adem Altan/AFP]

Azerbaijan says it has agreed to resolve a diplomatic crisis with Iran through dialogue, weeks after ties soured over Tehran’s allegations that Israel’s military was active in the country.

The breakthrough came during talks between Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian by phone, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

The Iranian foreign ministry also confirmed the two sides agreed to rely on talks to resolve tensions.

Last month, Iran protested against what it said was the presence of its sworn enemy Israel in Azerbaijan and promised to take any necessary action.

At the beginning of October, Iran staged military exercises near its border with Azerbaijan, drawing criticism from officials in Baku, who have denied Tehran’s claims.

Israel supplies arms to Azerbaijan and the two countries have strengthened their military alliance in recent months.

Last year, Israeli-supplied high-tech drones helped Azerbaijan defeat neighbouring Armenia during a six-week war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Azerbaijan and Iran have long been at loggerheads over Tehran’s backing of Armenia in the decades-long dispute over the region, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, even by Armenia, but is populated and until recently was controlled by ethnic Armenians.

Last year’s war ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Yerevan return swaths of territories, including a section of Azerbaijan’s 700km (430-mile) border with Iran which for decades had been under Armenian control.

Azerbaijan’s recent decision to impose a “road tax” on Iranian trucks passing through areas it regained has also fuelled tensions between Tehran and Baku.

Earlier this month, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said the number of Iranian transit vehicles passing through those roads gradually reached zero after the levies were rolled out.

Wednesday’s statement from Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said the two sides agreed it was “necessary to establish direct dialogue” on transit issues.

In talks with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Araray Mirzoyan in Tehran last week, Amir-Abdollahian said the pair agreed to finalise the construction of a transit road that would not pass through Azerbaijani soil. The road is slated to be launched later this year.

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