Editor’s Introduction

Prior to the beginning of the new millennium, I worked on editing a special issue for the American Behavioral Scientist devoted to terrorism in the 21st century. It was published six months before September 11, 2001. As someone who studied terrorism, as well as engaged with the subject in the real world, I was worried about the threat to the home front in the new millennium and was anxious to make my thoughts known. To do so, I assembled a group of academics and professionals to share their concerns as well and they did. The proximity of the publication of the special issue to the events of 9/11 made the topic all that more relevant.

The piece I was preparing for the issue had to be put on hold when I joined the U.S. Embassy Bombing trial, United States v. Usama bin Laden et al., as an expert witness. My involvement in the trial would prove problematic. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York granted me permission to meet with the al-Qaeda defendant in order to review discovery materials and discuss the case. I also had access to the infamous al-Qaeda Training Manual prior to its release. Along with access to the defendant and the manual, I was given reams of sensitive data prior to it being redacted and made public. For obvious reasons, I recused myself from participating in the special issue other than penning the editor’s introduction.

For this special issue, I wanted to invite back the contributors to the February 2001 issue to have them assay what they wrote or thought about terrorism more than twenty years ago. Did they have second thoughts about what they wrote? Did 9/11 change their thoughts? Did their analyses remain the same? Unfortunately, retirements, turn downs, and inability to contact, actually left me with the first three I contacted for the February 2001 issue, Larry C. Johnson, Jonathan R. White, and Randall Blazak. They were selected then for their first-hand experience in having real-world experience in dealing with the subject matter they were going to write about. I am elated to have them back again as contributors.

This special issue begins with my contribution “Terrorism in America in the Twenty-First Century: Revisiting my Prognostications” which almost mirrors what I would have contributed to the February 2001 issue sans the 9/11 attacks. Johnston goes over the accuracy and inaccuracy of his February 2001 article seeking to answer “what is the future of terrorism.” His article is appropriately entitled “My Back to the Future Moment for Terrorism.” White’s “Looking Back, Looking Forward: A Personal Refection” is just what the subtitle suggests. That is, the musings of a terrorism researcher over the past few decades. In “Revisiting the White Boys from Portland to Ukraine: Anomie and Right-Wing Extremism,” Blazak writes about the evolution of right-wing extremism in the first two decades of the 21st century.

Joshua Sinai and Izhar Haq et al. join us to tackle two areas within the study of terrorism that need addressing if we ever want to manage the threat to the home front. In “Assessing the Academic Study of Counterterrorism Since 9/11 to Understanding and Preventing Terrorism,” Sinai looks at how counterterrorism studies have changed or developed over the last two decades. He takes solace in that these studies have made progress in addressing the challenge of terrorism but regrets a lack of consensus in formulating a definition of terrorism. Haq et al.’s findings also leave room for pause. In “The Impact of 9/11 on Money Laundering,” they take on a very important aspect of terrorist financing, money laundering. As the song goes “Money Makes the World Go Round,” and terrorists would not disagree. They find that todays’ government officials are much more sophisticated in dealing with money laundering but the emerging issues created by cryptocurrencies have created new opportunities for moving money.

I invite the reader to examine the contributions in this special issue on revisiting terrorism in the new millennium. The hope is that they will stimulate dialogue, understanding, and research.