Faculty Experts: 15 Years after 9/11, Terrorism Remains a Global Challenge

The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance for the nearly 3,000 people killed in 9/11 the terror attacks, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

ALBANY, N.Y. (September 7, 2016) – From the streets of Paris, to a small town in the Philippines, terrorism continues to plague countries around the world as the U.S. prepares to mark the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

While war-ravaged Syria may serve as the front line against ISIS, other terrorist organizations remain as deadly, with the ISIS-affiliated group Abu Sayyaf accused of an attack that left 14 dead and 70 wounded at a night market in the Philippines. In the United States, attacks at the Boston Marathon, a night club in Orlando and at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, Calif., by terrorists with motivations linked to Islamic extremism left scores dead and hundreds injured.

The post 9/11 climate in the U.S. has seen battle lines drawn over immigration reform, homeland security and international relations. Other nations continue to grapple with imminent terrorist threats while thousands of refugees flee war-torn regions in the Middle East. At the University at Albany, faculty experts are available to discuss the post 9/11 world and the ramifications for the United States.

UAlbany is also home to the first-of-its-kind College of Emergency Preparedness, Cybersecurity and Homeland Security. The College is designed to maintain New York's position as a front-runner in state and national security. With nationally recognized experts in homeland security training and cybersecurity research and education, UAlbany is an established partner in public health preparedness with the State's Department of Health and UAlbany's School of Public Health.

The University’s terrorism experts include:

• Victor Asal, associate professor of political science at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy: Asal is an expert on the interaction of international relations and domestic politics and how this interaction influences ethnic conflict and ethnic terrorism.
• Richard Lachmann, professor of sociology at College of Arts and Sciences: Lachmann is an expert on political sociology, war and terrorism. Lachmann can discuss the role of “Islamophobia” in recruitment of terrorists to join ISIS, and how media portrayals of victims impact our perception of terrorism.
• Rey Koslowski, associate professor of political science, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy: Koslowski's primary teaching and research interests are in the field of international relations dealing with international organization, European integration, international migration, information technology, and homeland security.
• Brian Nussbaum, assistant professor of public administration and policy at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy: Nussbaum is an expert on cybersecurity and cyber threats, terrorism and terrorism analysis, homeland security, risk and intelligence analysis and critical infrastructure protection.
• Blanca Ramos, associate professor, School of Social Welfare: Ramos, an expert on cross-cultural social work and immigration, examines the role of post-traumatic stress in victims of disasters, including terrorist attacks. Ramos, an affiliated faculty member of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, can discuss the responses, experiences, health concerns and adjustments of survivors in the aftermath of major disasters.
• Karl Rethemeyer, interim dean, Rockefeller College: Rethemeyer researches social networks, both their impact on social, political, and policy processes, and the methods used to study such networks.
• Eric Stern, professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity: Stern has published extensively in the fields of crisis and emergency management, crisis communication, resilience, security studies, executive leadership, foreign policy analysis and political psychology. Other key areas of interest and expertise include social media and crisis preparedness, post-crisis evaluation and learning, interactive education and instructional design, and case research/teaching methodologies.

Asal and Rethemeyer have teamed together on a project to enable a better understanding of how terrorist organizations network and function over time. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) has launched the Big Allied and Dangerous (BAAD) online platform. The innovative new tool features updated, vetted and sourced narratives, and relationship information and social network data on 50 of the most notorious terrorist organizations in the world since 1998, with additional network information on more than 100 organizations.

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