4 Sep 2026
25 Years Later, WoT has the “War on Terror” achieved?
Bangkok — In a few days, the world will mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The “War on Terror” which followed had a profound impact on Travel & Tourism — increased security measures, visa restrictions, racial profiling, travel disruptions, warfare, draconian immigration policies, mass surveillance, terrorism prosecutions, and detention and torture.
Arguably the worst affected business sector, Travel & Tourism has paid both the price and the costs.
Worse, it is continuing to do so, with no end in sight.
Yet, the topic has never been discussed at any travel industry forum. That gap is now set to be plugged.
Between Sep 17 – 18, 2026 the Institute of Middle East Studies, George Washington University in Washington DC, is co-sponsoring a conference to “analyse the impacts of the global War on Terror and how the United States and its allies continue to deploy War on Terror frameworks, particularly Islamophobia and xenophobia, to manufacture consent for draconian surveillance and immigration policies, and exorbitant military spending for campaigns of ethnic cleansing, genocide, occupation, and extractivism.”
Says the introductory preamble, “Scholars, organizers, advocates, survivors, journalists, and community members will examine lessons from the War on Terror, explore what resistance to this framework of state violence has looked like, and ask how we can imagine a future where infrastructure of the War on Terror is finally abolished. This conference will hold space to mourn and remember survivors and the millions of victims of the War on Terror, as we continue to demand accountability, justice and reparations.”
The conference is being organised by Muslim Counterpublics Lab (MCL), a grassroots, community-building organization whose mission is to “disrupt and subvert dehumanizing narratives that are designed and deployed to justify state violence against Muslims. Its vision is to create a world where Muslims and all marginalized communities have political, social, and economic power to build societies rooted in liberation instead of oppression.”
Travel & Tourism forums will be encouraged to note that the event has attracted a high level of sponsorship support from multiple organisations with shared values. This opens up a clear window of opportunity to build on the conference subject matter and more comprehensively analyse its impact on Travel & Tourism.
The rationale for the conferences notes that the right after 9/11, the “War on Terror quickly evolved into a framework of warfare, draconian immigration policies, mass surveillance, terrorism prosecutions, and detention and torture that has not only endured, but expanded with US wars devastating Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Nigeria among other countries. Some estimates calculate 1 million killed directly from war, with millions more killed from sanctions, starvation, disease, the destruction of sovereign state institutions, and displacement. For twenty five years, the architecture of the War on Terror has profoundly reshaped the lives of Muslims, Arabs and other targeted communities in the United States and across the globe.”
The organisers say they “know that this anniversary – like many anniversaries past will be used to narrate events that justifies the multiple wars and systemic violence of the War on Terror, while also legitimizing the ongoing criminalization and demonization of our communities domestically and across the globe.
“At the twenty-five-year juncture of the catastrophic War on Terror and the infrastructure of state violence it has institutionalized, it is imperative that we hold space for our communities to reflect on this history, our resistance, and how we can pave the path toward our collective liberation.””
The conference will include a striking physical and digital exhibition headlined, “Shattering Justice & Re-Making the Muslim Threat”. Through a meticulous excavation of key events, policies, and laws enacted in the wake of the attacks and the launch of the War on Terror, the exhibit exposes the deep-rooted system of Islamophobia that has shaped U.S. national security policy and normalized the criminalization, surveillance, and dehumanization of Muslim communities.
“A series of bold, visceral poster panels are designed to unsettle, disrupt, and compel critical reflection of what justice and reckoning could and should look like and encourage viewers to look beyond the damage done and commit to the urgent work of solidarity, transformation, and abolition.”
