Experts' Corner on The Day After (9/11 and beyond)

The Experts' Corner provides a deeper look at NATO in history. Here you will find a selection of primary sources related to NATO in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

• Films and videos
• Audio files
• Speeches and articles
• NATO publications from the past
• Suggested reading

Suggested reading

CAMUS Colombe. Camus, Colombe. La Guerre contre le terrorisme : dérives sécuritaires et dilemme démocratique. Paris: Le Félin, 2007.

Depuis les attentats du 11 septembre 2001 aux États-Unis et ceux de Madrid en 2004 et de Londres en 2005, la lutte contre le terrorisme est au coeur des préoccupations sécuritaires des démocraties occidentales. Mais la figure indéterminée du terrorisme pose un défi détaille aux États libéraux : comment penser et rendre opérationnelle une réponse qui ne soit ni inadaptée ni disproportionnée ? Une réponse efficace qui n'impose pas de sacrifier les libertés individuelles au nom de la sécurité de tous?

CHOCQUET Christian. Terrorisme: la démocratie en danger? Du 11 septembre 2001 à la mort d'Oussama Ben Laden. Vuibert, 2011.

Du 11 septembre 2001 à la mort d'Oussama Ben Laden, dix ans ont passé. C'est au nom de la « guerre au terrorisme » qu'ont d'abord été lancées les opérations en Afghanistan puis en Iraq et que plusieurs législations nationales ont été profondément modifiées, mettant parfois en cause des libertés et droits individuels élémentaires. L'arrivée à la maison blanche de Barack Obama n'a, à cet égard, pas répondu aux attentes de la communauté internationale et de l'opinion publique américaine. Alors que les troupes de combat de la coalition ont quitté l'Irak et que la sortie des forces états-uniennes engagées sur le terrain afghan est annoncée à l'horizon 2012, cet ouvrage dresse un état des lieux revisité d'une problématique toujours d'actualité.

HALLAMS E., RATTI L., ZYLA B. (Editors). NATO Beyond 9/11: The Transformation of the Atlantic Alliance. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Since the end of the Cold War NATO has gone through an intense process of transformation. The process was not only a temporary and limited course of adjustment to the post-bipolar security environment, but has also become a constitutive element of NATO’s life and affected the core aspects of the alliance. In the last 20 years NATO changed its strategic posture, it has widely enlarged the group of its members and partners, and it broadened both its tasks and outreach. Offering an analysis of NATO's evolution since 2001, this volume examines key topics such as the alliance's wars in Afghanistan, its military operation in Libya, global partnerships, burden-sharing and relations with the US and Russia.

HALLAMS Ellen. The United States and NATO since 9/11: The Transatlantic Alliance Renewed. Routledge, 2010.

This book examines US attitudes to, and perspectives on, the transatlantic alliance, with a particular focus on US-NATO relations since 9/11. It demonstrates that, following the decision to bypass NATO after 9/11, the Bush Administration’s perceptions of the alliance shifted due to a belated recognition that NATO did indeed have much to offer the US. Hallams explores NATO’s contributions to post-combat reconstruction and stabilisation operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and argues that the events of 9/11 galvanised NATO into undertaking an accelerated program of transformation that has done much to reinvigorate the alliance.

HOFFMAN Bruce, REINARES Fernando (Editors). The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat. Columbia University Press, 2014.

Examining major terrorist acts and campaigns undertaken in the decade following September 11, 2001, internationally recognized scholars study the involvement of global terrorist leaders and organizations in these incidents and the planning, organization, execution, recruitment, and training that went into them. Their work captures the changing character of al-Qaeda and its affiliates since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the sophisticated elements that, despite the West's best counterterrorism efforts, continue to exert substantial direction over jihadist terrorist operations.

MARGULIES Joseph. What Changed When Everything Changed: 9/11 and the Making of National Identity. Yale University Press, 2013.

This bold and provocative work upends the conventional wisdom about the American reaction to crisis. Margulies demonstrates that for key elements of the post-9/11 landscape—especially support for counterterror policies like torture and hostility to Islam—American identity is not only darker than it was before September 11, 2001, but substantially more repressive than it was immediately after the attacks. These repressive attitudes, Margulies shows us, have taken hold even as the terrorist threat has diminished significantly.

MORÉAS Georges. Dans les coulisses de la lutte antiterroriste: De la rue des Rosiers à l'état d'urgence. First, 2016.

Ce livre montre l'incroyable évolution des services d'enquêtes et de renseignement dans la lutte contre le terrorisme. Et comment, en l'espace d'une génération, cette menace a changé nos valeurs, jouant sur nos craintes et notre imagination, au point d'accepter de sacrifier notre vie privée et de renoncer à une partie de ces libertés que nous avons reçues comme un héritage.

ORFY Mohammed Moustafa. NATO and the Middle East: The Geopolitical Context Post-9/11. Routledge, 2014.

The role of NATO in the Middle East has attracted particular attention since the events of September 11. This book reviews the strategic importance of the region and why it has become a source of instability, looking at US and international initiatives to counteract this instability and charts the development of NATO in this context.

ROACH Kent. The 9/11 Effect: Comparative Counter-Terrorism. Cambridge University Press, 2011.

This book comparatively examines the responses of the United Nations and a number of western democracies to the terror attacks on September 11 with countries that have more experience dealing with terrorism such as Egypt, Israel, Singapore and Indonesia. A number of common themes – the use of criminal law and immigration law, the regulation of speech associated with terrorism, and the development of national security policies – are discussed.

STRICK VAN LINSCHOTEN Alex, KUEHN Felix. An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan. Oxford University Press, 2012.

To this day, the belief is widespread that the Taliban and al-Qaeda are synonymous, that their ideology and objectives are closely intertwined, and that they have made common cause against the West for decades. Such opinions have been supported by politicians, media, even senior military figures, yet are rarely scrutinized or tested empirically. The authors aim to debunk this myth and reveal the much more complex reality that lies beneath it.

TSANG Steve (Editor). Intelligence and Human Rights in the Era of Global Terrorism. Stanford University Press, 2008.

Facing the threats posed by dedicated suicide bombers who have access to modern technology for mass destruction and who intend to cause maximum casualties, democratic governments have hard choices to make. The premise of this book is that for intelligence organizations in democratic states to be able to face up to the challenges of global terrorism, they must think outside the box and utilize all of their resources effectively and creatively. To overcome the enemy, we must also secure the peace.

WRIGHT Lawrence. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Vintage, 2007.

A gripping narrative that spans five decades, Wright explains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Re-creating firsthand the transformation of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri from incompetent and idealistic soldiers in Afghanistan to leaders of the most successful terrorist group in history, the author follows FBI counterterrorism chief John O'Neill as he uncovers the emerging danger from al-Qaeda in the 1990s and struggles to track this new threat.

YOO John. The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11. University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Yoo, a former lawyer in the US Department of Justice, makes the case for a completely new approach to understanding what the Constitution says about foreign affairs, particularly the powers of war and peace. From Truman and Korea to Clinton's intervention in Kosovo, American presidents have had to act decisively on the world stage without a declaration of war. They are able to do so, Yoo argues, because the Constitution grants the President, Congress, and the courts very different powers, requiring them to negotiate the country's foreign policy.