The Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington caused a number of changes throughout the world, including how academics research and teach terrorism at universities.

Today, Kansas State University offers master’s and doctoral degrees in a new program called security studies, and a Kansas University professor who teaches a course on extremist groups said his own teaching and research transformed after the attacks.

At Kansas State, the attacks led, both directly and indirectly, to the formation of the new program, said David Stone, a professor of history at Kansas State who co-directs the security studies program. Students examine all kinds of international security issues, from terrorism to nuclear proliferation to state-to-state relationships, he said.

“Afghanistan and Iraq have shown the need to know more and think harder about these sorts of problems,” he said.

After Sept. 11, researchers have worked to examine what makes extremist groups turn to terrorism, Stone said. In trying to decide what makes some groups stage rallies, some groups turn to guerrilla warfare and some groups decide to blow up civilians, academics hope to be able to train students in how to prevent those attacks.

“Terrorism is a technique; it’s a tactic,” Stone said. “It’s not an ideology.”

At Kansas State, the biggest constituency for the security studies program are soldiers from Fort Leavenworth, who are often midcareer officers, but they also serve soldiers from Fort Riley and civilians looking for careers in international affairs, Stone said.

The program has about 15 to 20 master’s graduates per year and just graduated its first Ph.D. student after adding the doctoral program to its already existing master’s program.

At KU, Don Haider-Markel, chairman of the political science department, has taught a course on extremism and government responses both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks.

After 9/11, the United States changed its response to terrorism from a law enforcement model to a war model.

“The focus is more on preemption through the use of force,” he said.

The 9/11 attacks also brought discussions of the CIA and the military into his course that he barely touched on before.

“Historically, international terrorism was never a threat domestically,” he said.

Haider-Markel said it’s also interesting to discuss the attacks with students who were between 8 and 11 years old when they occurred.

“They all remember it, they all have memories, but their knowledge of what was happening and what it really meant was very different than it was for adults.”