Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Professors Reflect on Lessons Learned, Challenges Ahead 10 Years after the 9/11 Terror Attacks

By Mike Porter

As Americans prepare to recognize the 10^th anniversary of one of the darkest days in the nation’s history, VCU homeland security and emergency preparedness associate professors William Newmann, Ph.D., and William Parrish provided insight into what we, as a nation, have learned from the 9/11 attacks and what challenges remain to our national security.

“There’s no doubt about it. We are much better prepared,” Newmann said. “We take emergencies much more seriously now than we did 10 years ago. Here on the East Coast, we’ve had an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week and look at the amount of preparation and response. That didn’t happen until after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.”

Parrish said the creation and acceptance of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has played a critical role in leading and coordinating preparation and response to terror threats. And local communities have stepped up to the challenge of homeland security and emergency preparedness.

“State and local governments and even private industries accept that they have a role to play in homeland security,” Parrish said. “The FBI and local law enforcement have had some successes in prevention, too. And there are a number of disruptions (in terror attack attempts) that we’re not going to hear about.”

Both professors agreed that defending the country from terror groups without borders was an ongoing challenge for the U.S.

“It’s taken some time to seep into the psyche of politicians and professors that it’s not just nation states that we need to worry about,” Newmann said. “It’s much easier for politicians to point at a map and say this is where the threat is coming from. They now understand how much the world has changed.”

Read more: List of events at VCU in connection with the 10th anniversary of 9/11

And Newmann said even 10 years after the terror attacks, some scholars don’t consider threats from non-state actors to be an issue.

“But they are a strategic threat. They may not be able to take down the United States, but a strong ideology that’s committed to causing harm can plunge nations into civil war,” Newmann said.

Parrish agreed that the U.S. strategy in dealing with terrorism has changed since the attacks.

“It’s very clear we are dealing with a radical ideology,” Parrish said.

Newmann said another lesson learned is that terrorism, which seemed to happen in other places, can also happen here. “Even though we are the richest country in the world, our open society makes as vulnerable to threats,” Newmann said. “And we aren’t going to change that.”

In the days after the attacks, Newmann modified some of his courses to include information about the terror attacks and began considering whether the university should consider offering courses in homeland security.

The end result was the nation’s first homeland security and emergency preparedness degree at a major research university. The Bachelor of Arts degree was first offered in the fall 2005 semester. An online graduate degree followed in 2007. The program is part of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs in the College of Humanities & Sciences.

Parrish assisted in the development of the program’s curriculum, which later turned into an offer to teach full time.

“At the time, I told Tom Ridge what I was doing and I said we need to institutionalize this in our colleges and universities,” Parrish said. “And I’m a strong believer in the academic programs like one we have at VCU.”

The homeland security and emergency preparedness program awarded degrees to four students in its first graduating class. Currently, there are nearly 300 undergraduates in the program, which prepares graduates for a variety of roles in the fields of homeland security and emergency preparedness, from careers in the FBI, CIA or U.S. Border Patrol to state or local emergency management offices or risk assessment managers for private companies.

Both professors agreed that awareness of the 9/11 attacks has faded with time, especially for people living away from the East Coast.

“I think there are some differences.  People living in the New York metropolitan area and the Washington area, including Virginia and Maryland, have a heightened sense of the dangers, more so than people in other parts of the country,” Newmann said.

But Parrish said the anniversary will boost awareness.

“When we see photos of those towers being hit and of the Pentagon on fire, we remember,” Parrish said.

Both professors agreed the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan in May 2011 will not singlehandedly end terrorism, though bin Laden’s death removes a charismatic leader from the al-Qaida terror group.

“Since bin Laden’s death, I still look at this as a three-phase era,” Parish said. “In the near term, we will see some ‘lone wolves’ committed to honor bin Laden and work to carry out his plans. In the mid-term, they may start gathering in small groups of two or three people to work together. And long-term they will form al-Qaida franchises that are larger and better organized. Those three threat scenarios are more complex than dealing with the core al-Qaida organization.”  

Newman said cyber terrorism is an emerging threat, particularly when coupled with a more traditional attack such as bombings or bioterrorism.

“But I remain optimistic 10 years out. There has not been a repeat attack. Attempts have been foiled or bungled,” said Newmann. “Our nation being more prepared and the attackers being less competent is a good thing.”