The 11th of September, 2001, is etched deeply into the minds of many people. The attacks with airplanes in Washington, D.C. and New York, the crash of a plane in Pennsylvania, the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and the attack on the Pentagon had far-reaching consequences in the United States and other countries. The indefinite "war on terror" announced by the Bush administration led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that are still not finished. Fundamental rights in the United States were restricted through the Patriot Act and many other laws. The torture of prisoners and the existence of special prisons such as the one at Guantanamo triggered fierce criticism from home and abroad. With the Department of Homeland Security, a new authority was created that was to be used among other things to ward off the danger of terrorism. International cooperation in data exchange began to occur with unprecedented intensity. The consequences of September 11, however, are not only political, military, or legal in nature. They extend to all aspects of American culture and society.

Ten years after the attacks, the John F. Kennedy Institute aims to take a multi- and interdisciplinary view of September 11, 2001, and its consequences. In addition to representatives from the six disciplines of the institute – literature, culture, history, political science, economics, and sociology – numerous guests from the United States and Canada will give presentations.

Dates of the Lecture Series "9/11 and the Consequences"

• October 19: Film: Human Terrain: When Academics go to War, screening (56 min.) and discussion with the co-director James Der Derian (Brown University, currently American Academy)
• October 26: Bernd Greiner (Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung): Imperiale Präsidentschaft und Präventionsrecht: Spuren von 9/11 in den USA und Europa
• November 9: Andreas Etges (John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin): Trapped by History? America at War from World War II to the War on Terror
• November 16: Andrew Gross (John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin): Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union: Violence, Detection, and the Politics of Memory after 9/11
• November 23: Moritz Schularick (John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin): A Dismal Decade – The American Economy since 9/11
• December 7: Peter M. Boehm (Ambassador of Canada in Germany): Still Friends and Neighbours: Canada, the U.S., and the Implications of 9/11
• December 14: Victoria de Grazia (Columbia University, currently GSNAS, John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin): Soft Power Militarism: Before and After 9/11

2012

• January 4: Thomas Blanton (Director, National Security Archive, Washington, DC): The Secrecy-Security Oxymoron: The Hyper-Growth of Top-Secret America and the Declining Health of Global Democracy; Ernst Fraenkel Lecture
• January 11: Peter Marcuse (Prof. em. Columbia University): Unresolved Issues after 9/11: Conflicting Responses – from Solidarity to Bigotry
• January 18: Winfried Fluck (John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin): Ambivalence to Irony to Grotesquery: 9/11 and Changing European Perceptions of America
• January 25: Peter Struck (German Federal Minister of Defense, 2002 to 2005): Neue Herausforderungen der deutschen Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik
• February 1: Lora Anne Viola (John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin): The New American Security State: 9/11's Impact on US Foreign Policy Institutions
• February 15: Harald Wenzel (John F. Kennedy Institute): Being Hurt: Regarding the Pains of 9/11

Time and Location

• First lecture, October 19, 2011, Wednesday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.,
• John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, Room 340, Lansstraße 7, 14195 Berlin; subway station: Dahlem-Dorf (U3)