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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 will be 'very careful' dealing with the Taliban government, former U.S. ambassador says

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Categories: ASCF News

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-will-be-very-careful-dealing-with-the-taliban-government-former-u-s-ambassador-says/ar-AAOn34p?ocid=msedgntp

© Provided by CNBC Taliban forces patrol near the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a day after U.S troops withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 31, 2021

China will tread cautiously in Afghanistan and its main goal would be to work with the Taliban on border security, according to Max Baucus, a former U.S. ambassador to Beijing under ex-President Barack Obama.
China will not follow in the U.S. footsteps to try and take over Afghanistan, according to Baucus.
"Their major concern is East Turkestan. They are going to work with the Taliban to help make sure there's very little terrorism from Afghanistan," Baucus said, referring to the Uyghur extremist group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

China will tread cautiously in Afghanistan and its main goal would be to work with the Taliban on border security, a former U.S. ambassador to Beijing said Friday.

The world's second-largest economy is one of the few countries that established friendly relations with the Taliban even before the militant group took over Afghanistan in a matter of days last month.

"I expect that China will be very careful," Max Baucus, who was the U.S. ambassador to China between February 2014 and January 2017 under former President Barack Obama, said on CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia."

"They will not try to take over the country as other countries, including the U.S., have," he said, adding that China is worried about potential terror attacks within its borders or on Chinese targets in the region, carried out from Afghan soil.

"Their major concern is East Turkestan. They are going to work with the Taliban to help make sure there's very little terrorism from Afghanistan," Baucus said, referring to the Uyghur extremist group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

The former ambassador added that developments in Afghanistan will test the United States as its global military and political clout decline following its withdrawal, leaving room for others like China to fill the gap.

"This is going to test the United States," Baucus said, adding, "We don't yet have a strongly defined policy for China, and now this withdrawal is going to complicate the development of that strategic policy toward China."

Afghanistan's natural resources
For years, Afghanistan served as an important backyard for China, according to Mohammad Shafiq Hamdam, who previously served as deputy security advisor to former President Ashraf Ghani.

"Their interest is purely economic and political," he told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Friday, adding that the Taliban and the Chinese government have very little in common apart from "challenging the U.S. presence in the region (and) challenging NATO allies."

China is interested in Afghanistan's trillions of dollars worth of untapped mineral resources that can potentially help Beijing boost its global influence, according to Hamdam, who also previously served as senior advisor to NATO in Afghanistan.

He explained that China can position itself as an alternative source for the Taliban as Afghanistan is in desperate need of economic assistance.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi reportedly said last week Beijing would provide $31 million worth of grain, winter supplies, vaccines and medicine to Afghanistan.

After the Taliban took power, most of the country's assets abroad were frozen and vital foreign aid was stalled. While the dire need for infrastructure investment has theoretically made Afghanistan a prime ground for China's expansive Belt and Road Initiative, experts are not convinced that Beijing will immediately barrel into the war-torn country.

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