The Terrorism Index
A Survey of America's Top Experts on the War on Terror and U.S. National Security
September 5, 2007, 9:00am – 10:30am
About This Event
The Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy recently released their third edition of the Terrorism Index, the first comprehensive effort to survey the American foreign policy establishment for their assessment of the U.S. fight against terrorism. On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the release of General David Petraeus' report on the Iraq surge, please join us for a discussion with three of the survey's prominent participants for their thoughts on the Index, U.S. efforts to combat terrorism, and the war in Iraq.Key findings of the Terrorism Index:
-Nearly all of the experts (91 percent) say that the world is becoming more dangerous for Americans.
-84 percent of survey participants say that the country is not winning the war on terror.
-More than 80 percent predict a 9/11-scale terrorist attack on the United States within the next 10 years.
-More than half believe the recent surge in Iraq has had a negative impact on U.S. national security, compared with 31 percent six months ago.
Paul R. Pillar, Visiting Professor, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University
Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
R. James Woolsey, Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton; Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Co-Moderators:
Moises Naim, Editor-in-chief, Foreign Policy
John Podesta, President and CEO, Center for American Progress
Location
Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington,
DC
20005
Resources
Audio from this event is available:Transcript from this event is available:
Biographies
Paul R. Pillar is a Visiting Professor and member of the core faculty of the Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He retired in 2005 from a 28-year career in the U.S. intelligence community, in which his last position was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia. Earlier he served in a variety of analytical and managerial positions, including as chief of analytic units at the CIA covering portions of the Near East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. Pillar also served in the National Intelligence Council as one of the original members of its Analytic Group. He has been Executive Assistant to CIA's Deputy Director for Intelligence and Executive Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster. He has also headed the Assessments and Information Group of the DCI Counterterrorist Center and from 1997 to 1999 was deputy chief of the center. He was a Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution in 1999-2000. He is the author of Negotiating Peace and Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy.Steven Simon is the Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to joining the Council, Simon specialized in Middle Eastern affairs at the RAND Corporation. He was also the Deputy Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Carol Deane Senior Fellow in U.S. Security Studies. Before moving to Britain in 1999, Simon served at the White House for over five years as Director for Global Issues and Senior Director for Transnational Threats. During this period, he was involved in U.S. counterterrorism policy and operations as well as security policy in the Near East and South Asia. These assignments followed a 15-year career at the U.S. Department of State. He is the coauthor of The Age of Sacred Terror, which won the Council on Foreign Relations 2004 Arthur Ross Book Award, and co-editor of Iraq at the Crossroads: State and Society in the Shadow of Regime Change. Most recently, Simon wrote The Next Attack, which examines the evolution of the jihad since Sept. 11, 2001 and America's response, and was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize in 2006.
R. James Woolsey is Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton in the McLean office, where he works with the firm's Global Resilience clients. Before joining Booz Allen, Woolsey served in the U.S. government on five different occasions, where he held presidential appointments in two Republican and two Democratic administrations. He was also previously a partner at the law firm of Shea & Gardner in Washington, D.C., where he practiced for 22 years in the fields of civil litigation and alternative dispute resolution. During his 12 years of government service, Woolsey was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993 to 1995; Ambassador to the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, Vienna, from 1989 to 1991; Under Secretary of the Navy from 1977 to 1979; and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services from 1970 to 1973. Woolsey was also appointed by the president as Delegate at Large to the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Talks and Nuclear and Space Arms Talks. Woolsey has previously served as a member of The National Commission on Terrorism, 1999-2000; The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the U.S. (Rumsfeld Commission), 1998; The President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform, 1989; The President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management (Packard Commission), 1985-1986; and The President's Commission on Strategic Forces (Scowcroft Commission), 1983.
Moises Naim is editor in chief of Foreign Policy, winner of the 2007 National Magazine Award for General Excellence (circulation 100,000 to 250,000). Naim previously served as an executive director at the World Bank and directed policy studies on economic reforms at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He also served as Venezuela's minister of trade and industry in the early 1990s. Prior to his ministerial position, Naim was professor and dean at IESA, a business school and research center in Caracas. He has authored or edited eight books. His most recent book, Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy, has been translated into 18 languages and was selected by The Washington Post as one of the best non-fiction books of 2005. His opinion columns appear in the Financial Times, El Pais, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times, L'Espresso, Berliner Zeitung and many other leading newspapers and magazines.
John Podesta is the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress and visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Podesta served as chief of staff to President William J. Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001, where he was responsible for directing, managing, and overseeing all policy development, daily operations, Congressional relations, and staff activities of the White House. He coordinated the work of cabinet agencies with a particular emphasis on the development of federal budget and tax policy. He also served in the president's Cabinet and as a principal on the National Security Council. From 1997 to 1998 he served as both an Assistant to the President and deputy chief of staff. From January 1993 to 1995, he was Assistant to the President, Staff Secretary, and a senior policy advisor on government information, privacy, telecommunications security, and regulatory policy. Podesta previously held a number of positions on Capitol Hill including: counselor to Democratic Leader Sen. Thomas A. Daschle; chief counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee; chief minority counsel for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory Reform; and counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Podesta is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and Knox College.
Founded in 1970, Foreign Policy is the premier, award-winning magazine of global politics, economics, and ideas. Published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, www.CarnegieEndowment.org , in Washington, D.C., FP is a 2007 winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. The magazine's readers include some of the most influential leaders in business, government, and other professional arenas throughout the United States and more than 160 other countries. In addition to our flagship English-language edition and award-winning Web site, www.ForeignPolicy.com, FP is also published in Arabic, Bulgarian, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish editions. For syndication or reuse permission, please contact Randolph Manderstam at (202) 939-2241 or rmanderstam@CarnegieEndowment.org.
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