U.S. Political Development and the Intelligence Failures to Prevent the Attacks of September 11

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Lynn Eden, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Lynn Eden is associate director for research/senior research scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. In the area of international security, Eden's research has focused on U.S. foreign and military policy, arms control, the social construction of science and technology, and organizational issues regarding nuclear policy and homeland security. Her book Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge, and Nuclear Weapons Devastation (Cornell University Press, 2004) won the American Sociological Association's 2004 Robert K. Merton Award for best book in science, knowledge, and technology.

A full understanding of the multiple failures to detect the attacks of September 11 requires that we step back and look at U.S. political institutions in historical perspective, including federal structure, the development of intelligence organizations, and corporate influence on regulation.