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Symposium

9/11 Attacks: Twenty-Five Years Later

The Tribute in Lights is illuminated on the skyline of lower Manhattan during events marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
Gary Hershorn/Reuters

Event date



From Twenty-Five Years Later: Reflections on 9/11 and the War on Terror.

Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the nation’s national security architecture is more complex than ever. This symposium will feature a keynote panel of former secretaries of homeland security, which will serve as the Kenneth A. Moskow Memorial Lecture. The two following panels will include senior leaders across various sectors, reflecting on the evolving counterterrorism landscape and U.S. resilience efforts, interagency coordination, domestic radicalization and terrorist finance strategies, as well as technological and soft power tools shaping the threat landscape today.

Click here to view the full agenda.
 
This symposium is part of the series, Twenty-Five Years Later: Reflections on 9/11 and the War on Terror, which examines how the legacy of the 9/11 attacks and the war on terrorism continues to shape U.S. foreign policy, domestic security, global affairs, defense strategy, and national security. 

The keynote session will serve as the Kenneth A. Moskow Memorial Lecture, which honors the memory of longtime Council member Kenneth A. Moskow, who made this event possible through a generous bequest. His intent was to establish an annual event to bring together the leaders of the intelligence community and promote discussion on critical issues in counterterrorism.

NY In-Person Keynote: Kenneth A. Moskow Memorial Lecture—A Conversation With Former Secretaries of Homeland Security

Speakers

  • Janet Napolitano
    Professor of Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley; Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (2009–13); Former Governor, Arizona (2003–09); CFR Member
  • Michael Chertoff
    Cofounder and Executive Chairman, Chertoff Group; Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (2005–09); CFR Member
  • Jeh Charles Johnson
    Cochair, Board of Trustees, Columbia University; Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (2013–2017); CFR Member

Presider

  • George R. Stephanopoulos
    Coanchor, Good Morning America, and Host, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, ABC News; CFR Member

Transcript

FROMAN: Well, good afternoon, everybody, and welcome. It’s a great pleasure to welcome you to the Council’s symposium commemorating the 25th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Today, we’re honored to have this group of national security and foreign policy officials whose public service was defined and shaped in many ways around the events of 9/11. Between them, they’ve guided U.S. policy that has protected Americans from a repeat of that terror, and they’ve helped reform the government to meet the enormity of the challenge in front of them.
But before we get started, I wanted to just take a moment and see if we could have a moment of silence for the 2,977 people who lost their lives that day.
(A moment of silence was observed.)
Thank you.
We all remember exactly where we were on that morning. For me, my wife and I were on an airplane on our way to Mumbai, and I remember very distinctly the pilot coming on and using the exact words, “Due to a security situation in the United States, we will be returning to Frankfurt.”
That’s all he said. That’s all he knew. And...

NY In-Person Session Two: Eyewitnesses to History—The View From Washington

Speakers

  • Jane Harman
    Former U.S. Representative (D-CA), Former Ranking Member, House Intelligence Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security (1993–2011); Chair, 2024 Commission on the National Defense Strategy; CFR Member
  • Paul D. Wolfowitz
    Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution; Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001–05); CFR member
  • John E. McLaughlin
    Professor of Practice, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; Former Deputy Director and Acting Director, Central Intelligence Agency (2000–04); CFR Member
  • John B. Bellinger IIICFR Expert
    Adjunct Senior Fellow for International and National Security Law, Council on Foreign Relations; Partner, Arnold & Porter LLP; Former Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Advisor to the National Security Council (2001–05); CFR Member

Presider

  • Juju Chang
    Coanchor, Nightline, ABC News; CFR Member

Transcript

CHANG: OK, I’m getting the thumbs up. Hello. Good afternoon, everybody. I know that you’ve been in session listening to accounts of the day. And today’s panel, this afternoon’s panel, is called “Eyewitness to History: The View from Washington.” So I’m going to welcome everybody on this stage in a moment. I am Juju Chang. I’m the co-anchor of ABC News Nightline. And I’m a member of the Council as well, and have been for many years. And I’ll be presiding this on-the-record conversation.
I just want to take a moment to say that I’ve spent a couple days in the last week talking to family members of those lost on 9/11. I just want to acknowledge that they continue to, you know, deal with the trauma and the pain of that day, in the ways that so many in our country did just by witnessing it. But these four on stage witnessed it in a particularly acute way, in a way that has clearly had policy implications, real-world implications, and, as Lin-Manuel Miranda said, they were in the room when it happened. So let’s just start by introducing some of you folks.
Let’s start with John Bellinger,...

NY In-Person Session Three: The Current State of U.S. Counterterrorism Policy

Speakers

  • Rebecca U. Weiner
    Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism, New York City Police Department; CFR Member
  • Lisa O. Monaco
    President of Global Affairs, Microsoft Corporation; Former Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice (2021–25); Former Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor to the President (2013–17); Former Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation (2006–09); CFR Member
  • Farah PandithCFR Expert
    Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Bruce HoffmanCFR Expert
    Shelby Cullom and Kathryn W. Davis Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations

Presider

  • Jim Sciutto
    Anchor and Chief National Security Analyst, CNN; CFR Member

Transcript

CHAN: Hey. Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. Are we all seated? Welcome to the third and final session of the Council on Foreign Relations Symposium on the “9/11 Attacks: Twenty-Five Years Later.” This final session is titled “The Current State of U.S. Counterterrorism Policy.” I’m Sewell Chan, journalist and senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, and I will be presiding over today’s discussion.
A brief introduction of the speakers, whose bios are in your handout. To my immediate left, Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security here at CFR; Lisa O. Monaco, president of global affairs at Microsoft, former deputy attorney general under President Biden, former homeland security and counterterrorism advisor during—to President Obama, and formerly chief of staff and counselor to the director at the FBI during the George W. Bush administration; Farah Pandith, who is a senior fellow here at the Council on Foreign Relations; and Rebecca U. Weiner, the deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism at the NYPD. Thank you.
I’d like to begin, actually, by asking one question of all of you to get this started, and I really am reflecting on the two panels that preceded...