Brookings Announces Project on Terrorism and American Foreign Policy

The Brookings Institution announced today it has launched a large-scale project on Terrorism and American Foreign Policy, which will focus the experience and analytical abilities of its scholars on both the immediate and long term challenges posed by international terrorism. [note: on November 13, the project’s name was changed to America’s Response to Terrorism.]

The project will present an ongoing series of briefings on various aspects of the crisis, analytical publications ranging from short 2,000-word papers to full-length books, and a large and growing website containing background resources, full texts of relevant government documents, and archived video, audio, and printed transcripts of Brookings events. The website can be accessed at:brookings-edu-2023.go-vip.net/terrorism

“Brookings scholars are uniquely qualified to analyze the American response to terrorist attacks on the United States and on U.S. interests because of their experience at high levels in the U.S. national security structure combined with the scholarly rigor that characterizes their analysis,” said James B. Steinberg, Vice President and Director of the Foreign Policy Studies program. He was deputy National Security Adviser to President Clinton.

Under the overall direction of Steinberg, The America’s Response to Terrorism is directed by James M. Lindsay, a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program and Director of Global Issues and Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council in 1996 and 1997.

Other Brookings scholars involved in the new project include: Roberta Cohen, former Senior Advisor to the Representative of the UN Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons; Stephen P. Cohen, an expert on South Asia, including Pakistan; Ivo Daalder, former Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council;Catharin Dalpino, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Bates Gill, Director of the Brookings Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies; Philip H. Gordon, Director of the Brookings Center on the United States and France and a former Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council; Fiona Hill, an expert on the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Caspian Basin, and ethnic conflicts; Martin S. Indyk, who served two tours as U.S. ambassador to Israel and is an expert on Iraq, Iran, and the Persian Gulf, as well as the Arab-Israeli conflict; Michael E. O’Hanlon, an expert on military and security issues, including Asian security and homeland defense; and Meghan L. O’Sullivan, who analyzes and writes about sanctions and incentives directed at “rogue” states.

In addition, Brookings scholars from the Economic Studies program and the Governmental Studies program will contribute their expertise to the terrorism project by writing papers and taking part in briefings and website chats to explain how the war on terrorism is affecting the economy, politics, bipartisanship, the domestic policy agenda, assessments of President Bush’s performance, and related topics.

The initial series of papers to be published by the new project will focus on issues such as America’s military options for responding to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; using financial sanctions against countries that support terrorism; understanding and stopping the international flow of funds that supports terrorism; the outlook for assembling an international coalition to combat terrorism; Pakistan’s pivotal role in capturing Osama bin Laden and destroying his terrorist network in Afghanistan; and how Pakistan’s nuclear force may effect the outcome of the crisis.