Social Science Research Council

On September 19-20, 2005, the Program on Global Security and Cooperation of the SSRC and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) co-sponsored a conference entitled "Thinking about Terrorism: taking stock four years after September 11th," in Washington DC. Since September 11 politically motivated violence, especially violence that also targets civilians, has become an urgent policy issue internationally. However, there is growing concern that many of the policies stemming from the "Global War on Terror" now in place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere may prove counter-productive in the longer run, fuelling radicalism rather than subduing it, legitimizing violence rather than discrediting it. Arguably the shortcomings in current policies relate in part to a lack of detailed understanding of the nature of the militant groups involved; the social and political environment in which these groups are nurtured and operate; the nature of the grievances that motivate them; and, their organizational modes of operation, financing and communication, as well as how these factors have shifted over time. These shortcomings may also relate to a lack of clear appreciation of the strengths, weaknesses and costs of the military, political and economic policies that various governments and international organizations have implemented over the years in response to the challenge of terrorism. In view of these shortcomings, the SSRC and USIP proposed this conference to take stock of what we know and still do not know about terrorism, and to reach out to policy-responsible audiences in Washington DC, in an effort to narrow the gap between academic analysis and policy formulation.