Testimony

Hezbollah in Latin America: Implications for U.S. Security
Testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security
by Douglas Farah

Published on July 7th, 2011
Today the U.S. faces a significant and growing threat in the Western Hemisphere: the presence of Hezbollah and its primary sponsor, the government of Iran, with its full arsenal of intelligence and specialized military units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Qods Force. The threat is not limited to the region and the Homeland alone, but more broadly its aims include an ability to hold the U.S. at risk in terms of exercising options in other theatres, most specifically with respect to Iran, Syria and the Middle East, including Israel.

Why Taiwan Matters
Testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
by June Teufel Dreyer, Ph.D

Published on June 16th, 2011
The current state of U.S.-Taiwan relations leaves much to be desired.  A recent analysis describes the island’s narrowing options, tracing a trajectory toward absorption by China. Given a continuation of current trends, it is difficult to disagree with this conclusion.   It is my belief that U.S. actions bear a large measure of responsibility for this drift, and that for two major reasons—first, to ensure its national security and maintain regional peace; and second, to remain true to its own founding beliefs, the United States must make efforts to reverse this drift.

Cyber Warfare Challenges and the Increasing Use of American and European Dual-Use Technology for Military Purposes by the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
Testimony for the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives
by Richard Fisher, Jr.

Published on April 15th, 2011
Uunder the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and as part of its total effort to harness its own cyber realm as a weapon against its citizens, the People's Republic of China very likely has built the world’s most formidable cyber warfare capability. It is the most formidable in both the breadth of its actors, in its global reach and in the daily threat it poses to America’s strategic and economic security.  It  imposes a heavy financial burden on Americans. A 2009 industry estimate held that annual U.S. cyber security expenditures could reach $25 billion by 2013.  Current open source figures for cybersecurity range from $10-13 billion per year, slated to rise at 9% a year, or $1.2 billion -- with cumulative spending under this administration estimated to be $55 billion for the 2010-2015 period. It is broadly understood that this spending is primarily in reaction to the PRC's cyberespionage efforts.  One current estimate asserts that cyber espionage alone costs the United States $200 billion a year, with, again, the PRC being responsible for most of that burden. According to the April 11, 2011 testimony of U.S. Northern Command commander Admiral James Winnefeld, this amount surpasses the national cost war on drugs, estimated at $181 billion annually.  Clearly this challenge is growing.

Testimony on Cyber-attacks, Espionage, and Technology Transfers to the People’s Republic of China
Foreign Affairs Committee, United States House of Representatives
by Hon. Edward T. Timperlake

Published on April 15th, 2011
The PRC had an agenda to not only curry favor with agents of influence but also collect information and conduct espionage operations, a select Congressional committee was created. The extensive report issued by that committee covered significant aspects of US military and commercial dual-use technology that was targeted by PRC collectors. The PRC agent’s success in the 90s and continuing to this day is being seen in the continued rapid modernization of all military forces of the Peoples Liberation Army.  For brevity I have pulled out a few representative samples in this overview of the PLA’s current clear and present threat to America’s National Security.

China’s Aviation Sector: Building Toward World Class Capabilities
Testimony for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on China’s Emergent Military Aerospace and Commercial Aviation Capabilities
by Richard Fisher, Jr.

Published on May 20th, 2010
Since the beginning of the latest phase of China’s military modernization following the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, the Chinese Communist Party leadership has striven to build a world class aerospace sector as a major element of increasing China’s comprehensive national power.  This goal has been pursued through enormous targeted investments in technology, design expertise, materials, and education, with successive sectoral reorganizations.  A broad acquisition of foreign technology has used to accelerate modernization and has been critical in all areas of success.  Having set a goal to become militarily dominant in the realms of air and space, this decade will see the emergence of a modern Chinese 4th to 5th generation air force, their first large cargo transport aircraft, and potentially, their first commercially viable transport aircraft.  However, reaching this point has also been hugely difficult for China and especially for its aero engine sector where results are just beginning to be realized. Assuming continued heavy government support and success, by the 2020s these capabilities could form a core military and commercial air power projection capability for China.  Absent appropriate U.S. government and commercial investments, by the 2020s the U.S. military and commercial aerospace sector will find itself in an increasingly heated competition with China, which will have significant security implications for the United States. 

Iran In The Western Hemisphere
Oral Testimony Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
by Douglas Farah

Published on October 27th, 2009
I believe the growing influence of Iran is a significant threat to the United States and is an under-reported part of the equation that is driving the instability and uncertainty in Latin America, from the crisis in Honduras to the rapidly-closing space for democratic freedoms in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and elsewhere where the Bolivarian revolution has gained a foothold.

Transnational Drug Enterprises: Threats to Global Stability and U.S. National Security from Southwest Asia, Latin America and West Africa
Testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
by Douglas Farah

Published on October 1st, 2009
What we are seeing in the era of globalization, is that flexible criminal and terrorist pipelines -- where key facilitators are vital to the operations of both sets of actors -- are highly adaptable and forward thinking. These pipelines or recombinant chains of actors and commodities now have the ability to move goods, both licit and illicit, around the globe to wherever the environment is most hospitable and tolerant. While by far the most lucrative commodities in the pipeline are cocaine and heroin, the same pipelines serve weapons traffickers, human smugglers, fraud and contraband.

Confronting Drug Trafficking in West Africa
Tesimony Before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
by Douglas Farah

Published on June 23rd, 2009
The movement of drugs, particularly cocaine, through West Africa is the product of several developments in the overall drug trade, and the consequences are already devastating, as shown by the new wave of political instability and the creation of the continent's first true "narco-states." As the trafficking grows, so will the havoc wreaked on weak states in West Africa--many of which are only now emerging from decades of chaos and unspeakable violence and are ill prepared to face the new challenges.

The Implications of China’s Naval Modernization for the United States
Testimony before the U.S. –China Economic and Security Review Commission
by Richard Fisher, Jr.

Published on June 11th, 2009
Recent statements by paramount leader Hu Jintao and others indicate that China is now signaling its political intent, and indeed is beginning to assemble the naval forces, to begin to defend China’s wide ranging interests further abroad. However, China does not provide for its citizens or for foreign parties, a clear explanation of its evolving maritime interests, naval doctrines and naval equipment modernization programs. Repeated calls for greater military transparency are largely ignored because the ruling Communist Party shares China’s historical aversion to such, and it does not have to provide expansive details of the doctrine, strategies or hardware modernization objectives of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to an adversarial legislature or press.

Foreign Aid and the Fight Against Terrorism and Proliferation: Leveraging Foreign Aid to Achieve U.S. Policy Goals
Testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
by Douglas Farah

Published on July 31st, 2008
There is growing recognition that there is no purely military solution in the fight against terrorism, whether the use of this tactic is driven by religion (radical Islamism), ideology and nationalism (Tamil Tigers), control of natural resources or “honey pots” (multipronged wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, recent wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia) or a mixture of these elements (The FARC in Colombia, Taliban in Afghanistan, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the janjaweed in Sudan). Our approach to combating terrorism, and the aid we give, is often limited by our confinement to dealing with individual states as entirely separate entities. But this is an increasingly unsustainable.