Episode 11: Remembering 9 /11

Content Warning:
On this episode of Global Voices, we speak with global security expert, Dr. Joseph Collins, a 9/11 survivor who was inside the building when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) military headquarters. Join us and listen to his incredible story of survival, tragedy, and heroism. Dr. Collins also sheds light on the aftermath of 9/11 and how the U.S. response to the attacks, had calamitous effects on Afghanistan, and may have inadvertently contributed to the Taliban's strategic rise after 20 years occupation.

We discuss Dr. Collins' illustrious career and contributions to the field of global security. Dr. Collins served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations, the Pentagon’s senior civilian official for peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, and stabilization and reconstruction operations. A retired Army Colonel, he worked for DoD for over 40 years in and out of uniform. A practitioner and academic, Dr. Collins worked as a professor at the National Defense University, directing the Center for Complex Operations, and teaching at the National War College faculty, among other teaching positions. He was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he did research on economic sanctions, military culture, and national security policy.

In 1998, Dr. Collins retired from the U. S. Army as a Colonel after nearly 28 years of military service. His Army years were equally divided among infantry and armor assignments in the United States, South Korea, and Germany; teaching at West Point in the Department of Social Sciences; and a series of assignments in the Pentagon. His Washington assignments included service on the Army staff, the Joint Staff, and in the policy division of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Dr. Collins has also taught as adjunct faculty in the graduate divisions of Columbia University and Georgetown University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Inst. of Strategic Studies.

He holds a doctorate in Political Science from Columbia University. He is also an honor graduate of the Army’s Command and General Staff College and holds a diploma from the National War College.

His publications include books and articles on the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Operation Desert Storm, contemporary U.S. military culture, defense transformation, and homeland defense. His latest books are Understanding War in Afghanistan, published by the NDU Press in the summer of 2011; and (with Richard Hooker et al.) Lessons Encountered: Learning from the Long War, published by NDU Press in 2015.

(Credits: hosted by Mathew Chemplayil; produced by Likam kyanzaire; In Passage by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue))