Faculty Experts: 9/11, Terrorism and Response

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

ALBANY, N.Y. (September 6, 2017) -- As nations continue to grapple terror attacks, the issues of immigration reform, border security and emergency response remain top concerns in a post 9/11 United States.

At the University at Albany, faculty experts are available to discuss the impact of 9/11 on the U.S. and the world.

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.
• Robert P. Griffin, Founding Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. Griffin studies the characteristics of coordination in the homeland security network.
• Brandon Behlendorf, an assistant professor in CEHC. Behlendorf's research utilizes interdisciplinary approaches to address policy-relevant problems within homeland and national security.
• 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 studies international relations including European integration, international migration, information technology, and homeland security.
• Brian Nussbaum, assistant professor at CEHC. Nussbaum is an expert on cybersecurity and cyber threats, terrorism and terrorism analysis, homeland security, risk and intelligence analysis and critical infrastructure protection.
• 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.
• Samantha Phillips is the director of UAlbany's National Center for Security & Preparedness and has played an integral role in several disaster responses including Superstorm Sandy, as well as public safety coordination for major special events such as the visit of Pope Francis in 2015 and the Democratic National Convention in 2016.
• Eric Stern, Ph.D., of CEHC. 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.
• Amber Silver, Ph.D. of CEHC. Silver focuses on social media's role in disaster response.

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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