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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.

China Set to Dominate Latin America Within 5 Years: Security Expert

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-set-to-dominate-latin-america-within-5-years-security-expert_4366903.html?slsuccess=1

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Argentina's then-President Mauricio Macri attend a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on May 17, 2017 in Beijing, China. (Damir Sagolj/Pool/Getty Images)

China is expanding its influence in South America to counter the U.S. dominance in the Western hemisphere, according to security expert Joseph J. Humire.

“They’ve been building it gradually, systematically, over many, many years—over decades,” Humire recently told EpochTV’s “China Insider” program.

Trade and investment in the region have been integral to Beijing’s efforts in this regard. But this trade comes with conditions, he said.

“Those conditions are often the loss of your sovereignty, the loss in some cases of your territory … and in some cases, China is able to hoodwink you into bringing them into their geopolitical orbit,” Humire, executive director of national security think tank Center for a Secure Free Society, said.

China and Argentina recently deepened their relationship by signing a deal at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Feb. 6, which added the country to Beijing’s “Belt and Road Initiative”—a massive infrastructure investment project aimed at expanding Beijing’s worldwide economic and political influence. With this agreement, Argentina will take $23.7 billion in loans for Chinese infrastructure development.

Engagements of this kind are allowing the regime to advance its military ambition, according to Humire.

To illustrate this point, he pointed to the Chinese military-controlled satellite tracking station set up in the province of Neuquén, north-west Patagonia, Argentina in 2014. China has claimed that the space station is for peaceful space observation and exploration. Yet, technical analysts have charged that the facility was geared for electronic warfare, according to Humire.

“That means, in a short time, they’ll take U.S. satellites, and throw them out of orbit in Latin America … in which the United States is supposed to have the most influence,” Humire said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 26.

The Chinese regime seeks to use Latin America as leverage against the United States, the expert said.

“The Chinese are making sure that Latin America becomes an area that’s inhospitable for the United States to trade, to travel, to do business,” said Humire.

“That’s part of the strategic calculation to be able to limit the U.S ’s ability to stop China’s ambitions in their near abroad,” he added.

The regime’s growing sway in the region is reflected in South American countries’ changing relationship with self-ruled Taiwan, an island that Beijing views as its own.

“Taiwan … had strong recognition in Latin America over decades. China has been eroding that recognition over time,” he said.

Consequently, some countries such as El Salvador and the Dominican Republic had flipped their recognition of Taiwan to China.

Meanwhile, Guatemala and Paraguay still remain as strong allies of Taiwan, but they are getting pressure from China on all fronts to drop that recognition, according to Humire.

The expert believed that if China eventually gets those two countries to change their stance, then Beijing will make its move to invade Taiwan because the island would be more isolated internationally and lacking support.

He warned that within five years, China would take over Latin America, and urged the United States “to hurry up and stop them”.

“As long as China is in Latin America, they’re always gonna be able to do more aggressive actions in the Indo Pacific,” said Humire.

“And that part is a serious threat to not just the United States, but to the Western world,” he added.

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