With the twentieth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks just over two weeks away, the Council on Foreign Relations have recommended some podcasts to learning more about that tragic day and its consequences.

In this article Jordan Michael Smith discusses the the decision-making post 9/11, how the United States entered into war and what the consequences that ensued for 20 years after were. The wise foreign policy people in government, Smith states, responded to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by embracing belligerence. What,…

In the two decades since the 9/11 attacks, terrorist networks have become more global and interconnected even as they remain locally tethered. The transnational and localized nature of the threat underscores the continued importance of international cooperation in all aspects of a response. This report explores the work of the…

Nearly 20 years after the United States intervened in Afghanistan to remove the Taliban from power, and in the wake of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops, the Taliban’s stunningly rapid reconquest of the country reached its denouement Sunday, August 15 as its fighters entered Kabul and President Ashraf…

In this article, Daniel Byman demonstrates the assertion that American counterterrorism has settled into a “good enough doctrine,” meant to “manage, rather than eliminate, the terrorist threat”—with a degree of effectiveness that few imagined possible in the aftermath of 9/11. In the 20 years since the 9/11 attack, U.S. counterterrorism…

Drawing on thousands of al Qaeda documents seized in the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Nelly Lahoud reveals that the other side struggled with the same question. The 9/11 attacks were meant, in bin Laden’s words, to “destroy the myth of American invincibility.” Ultimately, Lahoud writes, “bin Laden…

This briefing report by Bruce Hoffman is meant to reflect and elaborate on how the U.S. counterterrorism response to the September 11, 2001, attacks yielded some remarkable successes and disastrous failures in hunting al-Qaeda. The top terrorist threat today, though, is domestic rather than foreign.

“What We Need to Learn: Lessons from Twenty Years of Afghanistan Reconstruction” is the 11th lessons learned report issued by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. The report examines the past two decades of the U.S. reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. It details how the U.S. government struggled to develop a coherent…

It has been ten years since protests in which demonstrators called for dignity and civil rights spread across North Africa. The political landscape there remains diverse, ranging from a constitutional monarchy (Morocco) to ailing army rule (Algeria) to challenged democracy (Tunisia) to civil institutions alongside militia rule (Libya) and an authoritarian, aspiring dictatorship (Egypt). The…

In recent years, particularly since the 2019 live-streamed attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, video games, gamer communities, and online platforms made for gaming and related activities, have moved to the center of attention of policy, practice, and academia working on preventing and countering (violent) extremism (P/CVE). The EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator…

As the United States exits from Afghanistan, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it is important to reflect on the broader and longer-term reverberations of that withdrawal. In examining the withdrawal, peace process, and the recent dynamic of militia building and Taliban control, it’s becoming…

Preventing and countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (VERLT) is an area of increasing focus at the international, regional and national levels. This also applies to the prison context, due to fears that prisons may represent breeding grounds for VERLT. Such concerns are heightened after terrorist attacks…