Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, join Spencer Ackerman, Colin Clarke, and Amb. Elizabeth Richard for a timely conversation on how 9/11 reshaped U.S. foreign policy, intelligence, and counterterrorism. Bringing complementary expertise in terrorism, intelligence, and investigative reporting, they will explore the attacks' enduring legacy, lessons learned, and the future of U.S. national security. Moderated by Razia Iqbal, this program is the first in a two-part series, followed by a discussion examining the legacy of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan later this month.
Biographies
Spencer Ackerman's 25-year work as a national-security reporter for outlets like Wired, The Guardian and The Daily Beast has earned him a Pultizer Prize (shared), a National Magazine Award, an Investigative Reporters & Editors Medal, and other accolades. His book Reign of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump won a 2022 American Book Award and was named a book of the year by the New York Times critics, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy and the PBS NewsHour. Ackerman lives in his native Brooklyn with his family and publishes the newsletter Forever Wars.
Dr. Colin P. Clarke is the Executive Director of The Soufan Center (TSC), an independent nonprofit research organization based in New York City.
Clarke is recognized internationally as a highly-regarded terrorism expert. At TSC, Dr. Clarke's research focuses on domestic and transnational terrorism, international security, and geopolitics. Previously, Dr. Clarke was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he taught courses on terrorism, insurgency, and conflict to undergraduate and graduate students at the Institute for Politics & Strategy. He was also a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where he spent a decade researching terrorism, insurgency, and criminal networks.
Dr. Clarke has published several books on terrorism and irregular warfare, including After the Caliphate: The Islamic State and the Future Terrorist Diaspora.
Clarke serves on the editorial board of three of the leading scholarly journals in the field of terrorism studies, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Perspectives on Terrorism. Clarke has testified before Congress on numerous occasions as an expert witness on a range of terrorism-related issues and appears frequently in the media to discuss national security-related matters. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit and as an Honorary Senior Adviser to Tech Against Terrorism.
He received his Ph.D. in international security policy from the University of Pittsburgh and is an affiliated scholar at the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies at Pitt's School of Public and International Affairs.
Ambassador Elizabeth Richard was sworn in December 29, 2023, as the Coordinator for Counterterrorism with the rank and status of Ambassador-at-Large, leading the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau and serving as the principal adviser to the Secretary of State on international counterterrorism matters. In this capacity, Ambassador Richard also oversees U.S. engagement in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Ambassador Richard is a career Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Career Minister.
Prior to her current role, she was a distinguished fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. She served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Lebanese Republic, from 2016 until 2020. She served in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for U.S. Assistance from 2013 – 2016. She was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Sanaa, Yemen, from 2010 to 2013. Ambassador Richard has also served in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Italy, and Southeast Asia.
Ambassador Richard is a graduate of the National War College in Washington DC, and of the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy. She has a law degree from Southern Methodist University and practiced law in Texas before joining the Foreign Service.
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