A complete video recording of the Saltzman Institute’s roundtable, “10 Years Later: 9/11, the US and the World,” is available on Columbia Universities YouTube channel:

1st Part
2nd Part

The four-hour event, moderated by Professor Tonya Putnam of Columbia’s Department of Political Science, assessed the policy and research implications, and developments of the past ten years. After a brief introduction by Professor Richard K. Betts, director of the Saltzman Institute, five panelists (each a member or affiliate of the Institute) spoke on their unique perspectives. SIPA Professor Gottlieb began the discussion with a presentation regarding how our perception of the threat of terrorism has changed, and how it has guided our policy response.

This explanation of the growth of U.S Policy was reinforced by Barnard Professor Kimberly Marten, who explained the various perspectives on terrorism from academic fields of the Social Sciences, dispelling commonly held rumors and introducing new theories on the common character of the terrorist structure. Professor Page Fortna of the Department of Political Science took the panel a step further by introducing her own innovative research on the effectiveness of terrorist rebel groups versus non-terrorist rebel groups in civil wars. A comparative study followed as Barnard Professor Alexander Cooley assessed the different counterterrorism strategies of the United States, Russia and China, focusing his study in the great powers’ area of mutual concern Central Asia.

Finally SIPA Professor Austin Long, just recently returned from his summer as an intelligence analyst working in Afghanistan, spoke to the challenges of terrorism he witnessed in the field, and even questioned the United States’ stance on what we are trying to achieve. A spirited debate and audience questions followed their presentations.