25 Years On: Where Is Al-Qaeda Now?

On September 2nd, 2026 at 2:00 PM ET, the Program on Extremism will host a virtual panel discussion marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks: "25 Years On: Where Is Al-Qaeda Now?"

A quarter century after 9/11, al-Qaeda occupies a strange position in the public imagination — assumed by many to have been defeated. The core organization that conducted 9/11 has been degraded. Its affiliates, however, are having their most successful decade. In Mali, al-Qaeda's Sahelian branch has blockaded fuel supplies to the capital and assaulted a national prison. In Somalia, al-Shabaab reversed three years of government gains in a matter of months. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has rebuilt its finances and resumed English-language propaganda aimed at Western audiences. In Afghanistan, five years after the withdrawal, United Nations monitors continue to report an al-Qaeda presence that the Taliban deny.

This event will be moderated by Sara Harmouch, Program on Extremism Fellow.

The panel brings together four distinct vantage points:

Bruce Hoffman is the Shelby Cullom and Kathryn W. Davis Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security at the Council on Foreign Relations and a professor at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Colin Smith is Coordinator of the United Nations Security Council's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which monitors the Al-Qaida, ISIL, and Taliban sanctions regimes. He previously served for over two decades as a British diplomat, including as head of the FCDO's Counter Terrorism Department.

Thomas Sanderson is the Founder and Principal of Tom Sanderson Consulting, a geopolitical risk firm and he is the former Director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, with field research experience across more than seventy countries.

Justine Fleischner is an independent conflict and security analyst and a former Armed Groups Expert with the United Nations Panel of Experts on Al-Shabaab. Her work has documented armed group financing, weapons trafficking, and the diversion of materiel in Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.

Dr. Sara Harmouch (moderator) is a terrorism expert and CEO of H9 Defense, Adjunct Professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, a Security Fellow at the Frontier Security Institute, and a Non-Resident Fellow with GW's Program on Extremism. Her research examines how militant organizations adapt, endure, and expand operationally, with a focus on al-Qaeda. She has conducted primary-source research and fieldwork across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and Europe, including direct engagement with members of extremist organizations, and has published extensively on al-Qaeda.

The discussion will run for one hour and will include time for audience questions. The session will be recorded and made available on our website.

Register Here!