Newsletter #488 — September 11, 2026

by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess

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Reflections on the Long Shadow Cast by September 11, 2001 

In recognition of the very long shadow cast by the events of September 11 2001, we are highlighting links to a number of articles that we have found helpful as we have tried to think through the complex ramifications of this event and the ensuing slide towards a world in which horrific violence is increasingly part of our lives.

• Terror
  The Long Shadow of 9/11, Told Through the WSJ Archive — For those too young to have a vivid memory of 9/11 (and for the rest of us whose memories have started to fade), this article reminds us about what we all need to remember about this shocking event.
• Terror
  The Day That Changed the West: Students Must Learn About 9/11 — Today’s students are too young to remember 9/11, but its consequences still shape the world they live in -- yet another instance in which the failure to understand history places societies at risk.
• Terror
  When Terrorists Become the Heroes to Young Americans — Russian literature scholar Gary Saul Morson on how revolutionary violence became fashionable in pre–Soviet Russia, and why he sees troubling parallels to America today.
• Interstate War
  The End of American Sanctuary — Reflections on the increasingly difficult challenge of defending the United States from a sophisticated new array of inexpensive, but effective, high-tech challenges.
• Superpower Conflict
  A New World Order Is Coming. We Aren’t Ready. — An assessment of how poorly prepared we are for the rapidly emerging new world order -- an order that will replace the turbulent, but reasonably peaceful, era of Pax Americana.
• Terror
  The Enduring Tragedy of 9/11 — A sobering argument that the Islamism that spurred the hijackers to murder 3,000 innocent people has today been embraced by much of the American left (as an expression of victimhood, anti-Capitalism, and hatred of the West).
• Terror
  The War on Terror Did Not Fail — An especially thoughtful and balanced reflection on what the War on Terror did and did not accomplish.
• Interstate War
  Leipzig Attack Is a Warning of the Drone Threat Against Europe — This article gives you a sense of how close we are to a world in which widely accessible drone technology could wreak havoc in ways that are comparable to 9/11.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  Trump Is Preparing for a Long War — A report about how the war with Iran (the latest chapter in The War on Terror) is shifting into long-term mode (despite pre-election posturing).
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  Endless War? — A helpful personal and historical perspective on the long series of wars leading up to and including today's Mideast conflicts.
• Freedom of Speech 
  Civil Libertarians Knew This Would Happen. We Should Have Listened. — Many civil libertarians opposed enactment of the post 9/11 Patriot Act, fearing that it would lead to a wider erosion of individual rights. With the benefit of hindsight, this report asks whether those fears were justified.
• Violence
  A War of Assassinations — An exploration of the degree to which the ongoing Mideast wars have focused on the assassination (or targeted killing) of the leaders who have historically ordered people into battle from a safe distance.
• Terror
  Douglas Murray: 9/11 and the War on the Truth — Lies and conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks have become mainstream over the past 25 years. The future of the U.S. may depend on finding a way to successfully refute them.
• Terror
  Building 7 — An in-depth look at the conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 and thoughts about what those conspiracy theories are preventing us from seeing.
• Interstate War
  The Path to Zero: How the War in Afghanistan Ended — Five years after Kabul fell, WSJ Opinion’s new documentary traces the way one decision produced disaster.
• The Hyper-Polarization Threat
  How the Unity of 9/11 Sowed the Seeds of America’s Deep Political Division — A quarter-century after terrorists struck the nation, a look back reveals how the aftermath fractured public trust and fueled today’s era of partisanship.

Colleague Activities

Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.

• Constructive Communication
  How students at Colorado State helped teach their community to stop talking past each other and manage complex problems — Our colleague Martin Carcasson writes about one of many political discussions facilitated by Colorado State University students. Once the public experiences such constructive dialogues, they call for more.
• Saving Democracy
  CORE Playbook: Continuity & Operational Readiness for Elections — A shared framework for coordination, continuity, and resilience across the full election cycle.
• Saving Democracy
  2026 Election Risk Heat Map — The 2026 Election Risk Heat Map is a data-driven tool designed to identify where the conditions for election crises are most likely to emerge this year.
• Media Reform
  Making Sense with More in Common: Meta Settlement and Parents’ Concerns for Online Safety — Whether parents ultimately see Meta’s changes as meaningful will depend on whether Meta and public leaders can demonstrate that children’s well-being comes before other interests.
• Artificial Intelligence
  Artificial Intelligence and Citizen Participation: What Practitioners Need to Know — Drawing on 50 real-world use cases across 22 countries, this report examines how AI tools can support and strengthen participatory and deliberative processes.
• Effective Problem-Solving
  Guidebook for Deliberative Engagement: Key Features and Practical Insights — This guidebook treats deliberative engagement as a craft, insisting that different contexts call for different methods and that organizers should focus on the qualities that make any process effective. 
• Social / Economic Complexity
  A Conversation with Dana Brakman Reiser on Regulating Philanthropy — We may not be interested in charitable sector reform. But it is interested in us.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Can this framework unite Americans? — How centering an ethos of contribution can bridge political divides.
• Civil Society
  Think Smaller. The Surprising Path Out of Civic Helplessness. — Have you lost your ability to feel hopeful about our country? If so, you may be able to regain it by doing something counterintuitive: Think smaller.
• US Politics
  The Double Standard Presidency: When We Watch Leaders Act Above the Law — Americans are told that no one is above the law. Yet every day, they watch a president behave in ways that would get any ordinary citizen fired, disciplined, confronted, or held accountable — and they watch some Americans excuse it.
• Saving Democracy
  Uncontested Elections Are Undermining American Democracy — Seventy percent of America’s elections at all levels were uncontested in 2024, part of a trend that is weakening democratic culture.
• Saving Democracy
  Democracy Needs the Option to Vote NO — We can vote FOR a candidate, but not against one. That gap matters most in elections with no real choice at all.
• Saving Democracy
  Resistance to Authoritarianism Must Be Local — An examination of the important role that subnational governments can play in resisting democratic backsliding.
• Freedom of Speech 
  Safe Spaces vs. Free Speech: Rethinking Campus Safety — Why defining ‘safe’ matters more than debating safe spaces themselves
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  How citizens (not politicians) are building the future — Citizen strategist Jon Alexander spent a decade gathering stories of democracy in action — and found that most change doesn't come from politicians or institutions, but from ordinary people.
• De-Escalation Strategies
  What's the Antidote to Political Polarization? — Sharing more love and disagreeing better are key, says author Dr. Arthur Brooks
• De-Escalation Strategies
  Guest Essay: What Happens When a Democrat Calls a Republican? — Americans are better at de-escalating than we think. A story about the Party Line Project which invited Ds in San Fransisco to talk with Rs in Abilene, Texas over a dedicated phone line.
• Saving Democracy
  Vote Safely in 2026 — Sending troops or ICE officers to the polls is illegal. Here’s how you can protect your vote and your community’s voice, even if federal agents unlawfully show up.
• Saving Democracy
  Retired Chief Justices Warn of Growing Threats to the Rule of Law — Retired jurists urge action as attacks and threats erode trust in the courts.
• Networking
  The limitations of network goal-setting — The risk of goal setting is greater than the potential reward because a goal, by definition, is focused on the end rather than the possible.
• Corruption
  Fraud and the governance of interconnected systems — Much of the discussion around fraud in recent years has centered on human psychology, but we must also consider the environment in which decisions are made, and the way responsibility is allocated when those decisions lead to harm.

News and Opinion

From around the web, more insight into the nature of our conflict problems, limits of business-as-usual thinking, and things people are doing to try to make things better. (Formerly, Beyond Intractability in Context.)

• Hate Mongering
  Polarization as a Tool in Hybrid Warfare — Reflections on the ways in which adversaries can use sophisticated hybrid warfare tactics to weaken the United States by amplifying its hyper-polarized politics.
• Progressive Left / Socialism
  The DSA’s Problem Isn’t ‘Media Training’ — A report about a conflict within the U.S. Socialist movement. Authoritarian extremists are speaking for American socialists, and a lot of people don’t like what they have to say.
• Social / Economic Complexity
  The Troubled State of Sociology — Increasingly, sociologists are expected to avoid research questions and theories that involve the role of culture in shaping societal inequalities. This essay argues that this is making it impossible for us to build a more equitable society.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  The Apocalyptic Style in Woke Thinking — Surprising news with far-reaching political insecurity implications -- much of the climate movement, particularly its most radical elements, has pivoted to Palestine.
• The Nature of Complexity
  The Myth of Perfect Knowledge — Science will never be able to give a completely objective description of the world. Recognizing that should make us humbler—and wiser.
• Authoritarianism
  Roy Cohn Did It First — A profile of Roy Cohn -- a man who did much to adapt the darkest side of Machiavellian politics to the 21st century. And, a quintessential example of the bad-faith actors that we worry about.
• Progressive Left / Socialism
  The ‘Resistance’ Is Over — The insurgent left cares more about its own factional agenda than the president’s threats to democracy.
• US Politics
  Democrats Need to Stop Seeking Oppressors — Real or Imaginary — An argument that, if they want to defeat extremism on the right, Democrats need to expand their base by abandoning oppressor/oppressed thinking and politics.
• Disinformation
  Inside a Conservative Operation to Hijack Your Social-Media Feed — News that a service run from Latvia offers substantial payments to those who post short, social-media-friendly clips designed to look like grassroots GOP support. And, a look at the dark side of political advertising and propaganda.
• Class Inequity
  Americans Are Getting Caught in the Safety Net — The 1996 welfare reform helped move people from dependency to work. We need to do that again.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  Iran Unleashed — The dominant power in the Middle East from now on will not be the U.S. or Israel, but Iran.
• Progressive Left / Socialism
  The Socialism We Already Have — Sorry, youngsters, ask Scott Bessent: We’ve already run out of other people’s money.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  How My Generation Became Antisemitic — I’m a high school student. The Jew-hatred I see spreading through young Americans is worse than you think, writes Leo Lewis.
• Disinformation
  Drinking From the Poisoned Well — Our shared ecosystem of digital information sources is ever more vulnerable to lies and propaganda. This article asks whether and how we can fight back.
• Media Reform
  The Meta Settlement Makes Big Tech Bigger — The company is too powerful, the government says, then loads it up with new obligations that require more power.
• Progressive Left / Socialism
  El-Sayed and the Anti-Anti-Discrimination Democrats — A report on a forthcoming Cardozo Law Review paper on the fostering of an “anti-Zionist” exception in civil-rights law. The goal is to limit the ability of Jews to invoke these civil rights protections.
• Progressive Left / Socialism
  The DSA Is Using Coffee With Comrades and Socialist Softball to Convert the Curious — A story about the friendship network building strategy that is contributing to the success and startling rise of the United States' socialist political movement.
• Corruption
  America needs an accountability agenda — An article about the important contribution that better systems for holding leaders accountable for betraying the public trust and engaging in one of the many creative types of corruption available.
• Artificial Intelligence
  How AI Tools are Changing Research, Communication, and Education — A detailed and enlightening report on how one scholar is using AI tools to build Information services that help expand public understanding of the complex issues surrounding climate change.
• Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
  How Trans Activism Became So Radical — The trans movement won the lottery. Then they lost it all.

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About the MBI Newsletters

Two or three times a week, Guy and Heidi Burgess, the BI Directors, share some of our thoughts on political hyper-polarization and related topics. We also share essays from our colleagues and other contributors, and every week or so, we devote one newsletter to annotated links to outside readings that we found particularly useful relating to U.S. hyper-polarization, threats to peace (and actual violence) in other countries, and related topics of interest. Each Newsletter is posted on BI, and sent out by email through Substack to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy here and find the latest newsletter here or on our BI Newsletter page, which also provides access to all the past newsletters, going back to 2017.

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