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.

Trump 'took Reagan-esque action' by striking Iran Gen. Soleimani

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Terrorism National Preparedness

Fox News contributor and former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen defended President Trump's decision to order the airstrike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani last week, saying that it "restored deterrence."

"[The order to take out Soleimani is] not impulsive. That was very carefully thought out strategy. And now he's restored deterrence with the Iranian regime," Thiessen said on "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Wednesday. "He's sending him [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] a message that America will not be pushed around. You will not cross our red lines."

"And Iran is now staying within those red lines," Thiessen added. "We just saw their response. They were very careful."

Trump declared Wednesday that Iran “appears to be standing down” in the wake of missile strikes on Iraqi airbases that house American service members that the president said resulted in “no casualties.” For his part, Khamenei said Wednesday that the missile attacks were meant as "a slap in the face" to the United States.

"Trump gave a Reagan-esque speech today because he took Reagan-esque action. Words without action don't matter," Thiessen said. "When he took out Soleimani, the first thing I thought about was the fact that in 1986, Ronald Reagan drew a red line with [Libyan dictator] Colonel [Muammar] Qaddafi is that if you kill a single American, we're gonna come after your regime. And Qaddafi bombed a discotheque in West Berlin, killing American servicemen, and ... Ronald Reagan launched a decapitation strike against Qaddafi."

Thiessen went on to urge Trump to "maintain deterrence" with Iran.

"The lesson from Ronald Reagan is that one strike, however bold, however courageous it was and it was, is not enough to deter them," Thiessen said. "What the Iranians want is the Iranians want us out of Iraq. They want us out of Syria. They want us out of the Middle East. And that's their long game."

"President Trump needs to understand he can't he can't give the Iranians what they want," Thiessen added. "He needs to maintain deterrence if he's going to have peace through strength."

Fox News' Frank Miles and Brooke Singman contributed this report.

Photo: Fox News

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