The dramatic events of September 11, 2001 have ramifications for the nature of global governance as well as the institutions of liberal democracy. The most serious danger these events pose is their potential to usher in, under the appealing cloak of ‘security’, a debilitating form of ‘anti politics’ that marginalizes the constructive conflicts—the debate and […]
Terrorist attacks on and since September 11th have stimulated public soul-searching, military and diplomatic responses, and efforts to reform public policy. Both the attacks and responses to them have raised a host of questions about social organization, basic social institutions, how people mobilize amid crises, and how differences of culture and politics shape conflict and cooperation.
This website features an extraordinary and still-expanding collection of essays by leading social scientists from around the country and the world. These are efforts by social scientists to bring theoretical and empirical knowledge to bear on the events of Sept. 11, their precursors, and what comes after.
We have asked the authors of these essays to write against two-week deadlines. Much to their credit they have obliged, even when it is difficult to come by sure knowledge in a time of quickly changing circumstances.
These essays are intended as resources for teachers—especially college and university instructors—who want to address the unfolding events in their courses from the perspectives of the social sciences. We hope they may also serve journalists and others who seek a guide to academic knowledge related to these events. Not least they are for all of us who seek deeper understanding in troubling times.
Ten years after these essays were published, contributors to After September 11 were asked to reflect on what they wrote and to explore what had changed and what remained the same since those harrowing times, resulting in the essay collection 10 Years after September 11.
After September 11
The Attack on Humanity: Conflict and Management
by I. William Zartman
The Attack on Humanity of 11 September is captured in two contradictory images. On one hand, it is portrayed as a response to globalization, on the other as religious rage. Both provide insights and implications. The September attack is the backside of globalization, the first and fiercest reaction of its kind. It was reverse globalization […]
After September 11
The Political Psychology of Competing Narratives: September 11 and Beyond
by Marc Howard Ross
Many Americans are deeply troubled by the often tepid reactions from the Muslim world to the September 11 attacks and by the images of street protests in Muslim countries against U. S. military actions in Afghanistan. These reactions have led to a spate of stories in the popular press and television asking, “Why do they […]
After September 11
Muslims in the West: A Positive Asset
by Tariq Modood
For Western political leaders and commentators to keep politically repeating that the ‘war on terrorism’ is not a war on Muslims is of great importance. For the rhetoric associated with Samuel Huntington’s ‘clash of civilization’ is thick in the air; just as it was politically being brought under control—at least as an official posture—the Italian […]
After September 11
Women, War and Fundamentalism in the Middle East
by Haideh Moghissi
A constructive discussion and dialogue about Islam and gender has never been free of its controversies. The task has been how to explain the stubborn survival of traditions and practices hostile to women in Islamic societies without adding to the arsenal of racist imagery about Islam and Muslim women, targeting diasporic communities in the West. […]
After September 11
Predictions
by Charles Tilly
The following is a series of three emails written by Professor Tilly in the week following September 11. These emails were originally posted to amsoc, a list-serve based at Columbia University. New York disasters September 12, 2001 After the terrible loss of life downtown a little less than a day ago, New York is picking […]
After September 11
Defend Politics Against Terrorism
by Peter Alexander Meyers
Each season of popular discussion has its special topics. “Certainty” is again in fashion. The way has been paved by more than a generation of contests about “relativism,” “social construction,” and “multiculturalism.” We are barely through with the Sokal Affair. Now, following the attacks of September 11, our screens, pages, and airwaves are again filled […]
After September 11
Post Taliban Pakistan: A Tentative Recipe for Change
by Kamran Asdar Ali
NOTE: This article was originally written on September 17, 2001. It has been modified to incorporate the changing events of the past weeks. In December of 1971 the Pakistani army surrendered to the Indian Forces in East Pakistan/Bangladesh. As a result of its defeat and failed policies, the Pakistani military finally handed over power to […]
After September 11
Terrorism and Freedom: An Outside View
by Luis Rubio
Nothing is more telling about the recent terrorist attacks in the United States than the nature of their targets. The Twin Towers in New York City represented the future, modernity, America’s optimistic outlook of the world, and, more recently, of globalization. The terrorist attacks constitute a direct hit against those values, which is the main […]
After September 11
Memorializing Absence
by Marita Sturken
It has been said quite often since September 11 that Americans are standing at a juncture of history, that, on that date, the world changed forever into a ‘before’ and an ‘after.’ Such proclamations of radical breaks in historical consciousness have happened before, of course. Writing in 1924 about the experience of modernity, Virginia Woolf […]