The National Conversation--9/11: The Next Ten Years

With the imminent fall of the Libyan regime and enormous changes taking place across the Arab world, the national security landscape has dramatically altered.

But the protestors in Tahrir Square or in Tunis did not wave banners hailing Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri—instead, they rejected their autocratic governments. Will these newfound voices also help in rejecting Muslim extremism and other violent ideologies? What will the next ten years bring? Will terrorism still be the overarching threat it has been since 9/11? It is clear that America must rethink its strategies for countering the threat of terrorism going forward.

To discuss these issues, The Wilson Center brings together top experts from Congress, the intelligence community, the media, and academia in an event moderated by the Washington Post's David Ignatius to examine how the threat is changing and how homeland security, military, and intelligence strategies should evolve to deal with it.

The National Conversation at The Wilson Center, a recent initiative, provides a safe political space for deep dialogue and informed discussion of the most significant problems and challenges facing the nation and the world. Nonpartisan and civil, The National Conversation provides the level of discourse the nation deserves through thoughtful and challenging explorations of vital issues.

Over the past ten years, The Wilson Center has convened a careful, reasoned dialogue about the many critical issues and questions raised by the attacks on September 11, and its experts have contributed to the discourse in articles, live interviews, and panel discussions. Here is a selection of The Wilson Center's decade of scholarship surrounding 9/11.

U.S. National Security and Foreign Policy

• Balancing Liberty and Security (dialogue episode with Viet Dinh, chief architect of the Patriot Act, May 16, 2010)
• Regime Change (dialogue episode with Robert Litwak, author of Regime Change U.S. Strategy through the Prism of 9/11, August 19, 2007)
• "Are We Safer?" Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton Speak on the Sixth Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks (webcast event, September 11, 2007)
• An Age of Uncertainty (dialogue episode with Lee H. Hamilton, April 2, 2006)
• Al Qaeda at 2.0: The Terrorist Organization After 9/11 (event, November 30, 2004)

Global Security

• The Evolution of NATO: the 2010 Strategic Concept and Beyond (webcast event, May 21, 2010)
• Five Years After 9/11, by Lee H. Hamilton (commentary, September 11, 2006)
• NATO at a Crossroad: Can It Cope with Post-September 11th and Enlargement Challenges? by Jeffrey Simon (publication, May 2002)

Immigration and Borders

• Border Security Challenges After 9/11: A Conversation With Three Commissioners of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (webcast event, September 9, 2011)
• U.S. Immigration Policy since 9/11: Understanding the Stalemate Over Comprehensive Immigration Reform (webcast event, August 24, 2011)

Religion and Culture

• Brendon O'Connor Mines the History of Anti-Americanism After 9/11 (essay in The Australian, September 12, 2011)
• Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World (webcast event with Robin Wright, July 13, 2011)
• Winning (or Losing) Hearts and Minds? (dialogue episode with Fellow Roger Hardy, March 6, 2011)
• Journey Into America: The Challenge of Islam (dialogue episode with Akbar Ahmed, October 3, 2010)