What to Do? a Global Strategy

Abstract

On November 27, 2002, Congress and President George W. Bush created the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States to investigate the attacks of 9/11. The Commission of ten members, five Republicans and five Democrats, was chaired by Thomas H. Kean, former governor of New Jersey, with Lee H. Hamilton, formerly a member of Congress from Indiana, as vice chair. The Commission’s widely anticipated report was published in 2004. It is by general consensus the single most authoritative document on 9/11. The report starts with a detailed description of the events on 9/11, followed by a lengthy description and analysis of the background to the attacks, and closes with a series of recommendations for a global strategy and for reorganizing the Federal government to combat terrorism. Some of the recommendations have been implemented; others continue to be seriously discussed. The excerpt below, drawn from the section on global strategy, consists of several policy recommendations for combating terrorism.