Many security analysts say the terrorist threat has increasingly become a local one. They argue that as the crackdown on the al Qaeda organization has fractured the movement, small groups of friends and isolated individuals, all receiving little more than inspiration from abroad, have become the primary concern.

This half-day conference brings together leading homeland security and counterterrorism scholars and practitioners to assess these claims.

The panelists will discuss whether the phenomenon is actually all that new and how big a threat it presents. Might the increased efforts to find terrorists have caused a perceived increase in their number? Have they effectively been invented in some cases by the policing methods applied? How dangerous are they? What role, if any, have al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere lately played? And what do the answers to these questions imply for counterterrorism policy?

This conference is made possible with support from the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Ohio State University.

9:00 a.m.	Registration
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.	Panel 1: The Homegrown Threat in the United States Watch the Event in QuickTime (M4V) Download a Podcast of the Event (MP3) Moderator: Benjamin Friedman, Cato Institute Panelists: Risa Brooks, Marquette University John Mueller, Ohio State University and Cato Institute Brian Jenkins, RAND Corporation
11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.	Panel 2: Homegrown Terrorism Elsewhere in the West Watch the Event in QuickTime (M4V) Download a Podcast of the Event (MP3) Moderator: Max Abrahms, Johns Hopkins University Panelists: Mitchell Silber, New York Police Department and Columbia University Michael Kenney, University of Pittsburgh Glenn Carle, CIA (retired)
12:45 p.m.	Luncheon