Danielle Pletka joined AEI in 2002 as vice president for foreign and defense policy studies. She was previously the senior professional staff member for the Near East and South Asia at the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

In 2002, Thomas Donnelly joined AEI as a resident fellow examiningU.S. strategic defense and international security issues. He writes AEI's new National Security Outlook, which examines national security challenges facing the United States; provides insight into and analysis of the complex world of post-cold-war political, military, and technological threats; and helps policymakers define the strategies, forces, and resources required to defend and advance American national interests.

In The War against the Terror Masters (2002), Michael A. Ledeen analyzes the failure of successive American administrations to come to grips with terrorism and presents a detailed picture of the break-down of U.S. intelligence services. AEI hosted a forum on the book in September that featured commentary from two leading counterterrorist practitioners in recent American history: General Wayne Downing, formerly commander of U.S. Special Forces; and Duane Clarridge, the CIA official who created the agency's counterterrorist center in the mid-1980s.

In an event cosponsored with the Hudson Institute, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared his thoughts on the current Middle East violence and analyzed the future of U.S.-Israeli relations in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

AEI hosted two events looking at the United Kingdom's experience with terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland and what it can teach the world about fighting terror and winning. The February event featured John Reid, Britain's secretary of state for Northern Ireland; in December, the speaker was David Trimble, first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize.