Taking Stock of the 9/11 Era
This online conference was held in November 2021 and organized by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) in cooperation with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The overarching idea behind the conference is to discuss the lessons from the war on terror from various angles, in light of the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the withdrawal of NATO and US troops from Afghanistan. Some of the questions we want to address throughout the conference are:
- What went wrong, what went right, and was it worth it?
- What do we now understand that we did not in the early years?
- How has counterterrorism changed in these two decades?
- How can we implement these lessons going forward?
Four of the speakers have written background notes in the form of blogposts.
Program
14.00-14.10 Opening
With remarks by State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
14.10-15.10 Panel 1: The history of al-Qaida
Nelly Lahoud, Peter Bergen, Anne Likuski (moderator)
15.20-16.20 Panel 2: The evolution of the jihadi movement
Brynjar Lia, Nihad Jariri, Petter Nesser (moderator)
16.30-17.45 Panel 3: Technology and jihadism
Don Rassler, Audrey Cronin, Thomas Hegghammer, Truls Tønnessen (moderator)
18.00-19.00: Panel 4: Afghanistan
Hassan Abbas, Craig Whitlock, Paul Cruickshank (moderator)
19.10-20.10: Panel 5: Effects and sideeffects: Was it worth it?
Neta Crawford, Naureen Chowdhury Fink, Ellen Haugestad (moderator)
20.20-20.30 Closing
With remarks by the Norwegian Chief of Defence