9/11: Five Years Later

Five years ago, as the twin towers burned in a crude effigy of otherworldly hatred, Americans were profoundly affected. No one imagined that the tallest buildings in our largest city could be brought to the ground by nineteen fanatical men flying on commercial airliners.

All of us here at the Spectator would like to express our deepest sympathies to those who lost loved ones during the events of September 11, 2001.

Five years after the fact, there are countless unanswered and unanswerable questions surrounding the events and their aftermath: what happened, what should have happened in response, and what might happen in the future are all up for debate.

Presented here are a few of these questions.

“A Thayer St. Discussion of Terrorism”

“A joke told on the Streets of the Middle East goes like this: President George W. Bush came to the Middle East to bring democracy, took some notes, and brought authoritarianism home.” That’s how Melani Cammett, assistant professor of political science and recently named Director of Brown’s International Relations program, began her presentation as part of the “9/11 + 5” panel held by the Watson Institute of International Studies on the fifth anniversary of the attack.

The panel’s general question, as presented by Professor of International Studies and Director of the Global Security Program at the Watson Institute James Der Derian, was whether the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and America’s subsequent response have changed the world all that much. In academic circles, the answer is no.

Cammett recently returned from conducting research in Lebanon, and she spoke primarily about how America and its foreign policy are perceived in the Arab world. She said that the actions taken by American leaders in the region are largely viewed as hypocritical, as many observers might expect.

Still, Cammett described a “latent good will toward Americans in the region” that could be bolstered by a dramatic change in U.S. foreign policy. “Hearts and minds in the Middle East are ready to be won,” she said.

Cammett cited polls taken in 2001 showing that, while residents of the Middle East were at that time critical of American foreign policy, most harbored favorable opinions of American culture, products, science, and technology. Similar polls taken in 2003 and 2005, however, indicated that perceptions of all aspects of American culture - and not just its foreign policy - had dramatically worsened.

Justine Rosenthal and Michael Bhatia ‘95, new visiting fellows in international studies, followed Cammett’s presentation.