The World After 9 / 11 What Have We Learned

A decade has passed since the attacks of 9/11. The heightened curiosity about terrorism has seen an avalanche of books and articles in recent years. In this article, after tracing the evolution of research in the area of social conflict, in general, and terrorism, in particular, I attempt to understand if the collected wisdom has altered the views of those who make public policies in the US. However, in a rapidly changing world, some of the old theories of mass mobilization are becoming obsolete with equal speed. At a time when ideas can spread across the world in the speed of light through the Internet, we may have to have a different methodology for understanding how political movements are formed and how the government can mitigate the risks of politically motivated violence.