The Mershon Center for international security studies, located in Derby Hall, is hosting virtual events via Zoom this fall semester. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
The Mershon Center for International Security Studies will hold educational political events for Ohio State students, faculty and staff over the coming months.
This semester, four events will follow “9/11 at 20: Reflecting on the Attack and 20 Years of the Post-9/11 Era,” a conference held Friday. Joseph Stieb, a postdoctoral researcher at the Mershon Center, said individuals can stay connected with the Mershon Center through social media on Twitter, as well as their website.
According to the website, there are four upcoming events this semester held via Zoom, including:
- “Is the Two-State Solution Dead?” on Sept. 23.
- “First Friday Conversations: The Pentagon Report on UFOs and the Silence of Security Studies” on Oct. 1.
- “The Hardest Place – The American Military and the War in Afghanistan” on Oct. 7.
- “Climate Change and U.S. Foreign Policy” on Oct. 21.
The 9/11 conference was held via Zoom Friday, a day before the 20th anniversary, and touched on the effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It featured a series of panelists including professors and journalists, with lectures on the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks.
Dakota Rudesill, an associate professor of law, and Stieb hosted and moderated the event. There were four sections: “Sept. 11, 2001, Experience and Memory;” “Foreign Policy, Political & Cultural Impact;” “Violence Management, Prevention & Recovery;” and “Legal Legacy.”
Stieb said there were several ideas he and the Mershon Center staff wanted audience members to take away from the lecture, including the ability to look at the 9/11 attacks from a variety of perspectives. He added another goal of the event was to be interactive, allowing the audience to be an important part of each discussion.
“All three of my panelists were critical of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11, but they were critical in different ways,” Stieb said. “I wanted to get the audience, the Ohio State community, to hear all these critiques, listen to some questions, be able to ask their own questions and then to make up their own minds.”
With it being the 20th anniversary of the attacks, Stieb said it was all the more important for young adults without firsthand knowledge of the attacks to broaden their understanding of the day’s events.
“Having not experienced this, there’s a gap between the folks who are [college]-aged and folks who are old enough to remember it,” Stieb said.
He said the aftermath of 9/11 can be seen all around the world, including today with U.S. foreign policy and how the attacks “changed the way Americans saw the world.”
Rudesill spoke at the beginning of the event about this same topic, referencing the recent departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan as a modern-day ripple from the splash of Sept. 11.
“In recent weeks, all of us have watched the ragged end of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, which started as one of 9/11’s first consequences,” Rudesill said.
The Mershon Center’s next event will take place Sept. 23, featuring Peter Hahn of Ohio State’s Department of History for a discussion on the question: “Is the Two-State Solution Dead?” Those interested in attending can register via Zoom here.
