In a '' Foreign Affairs '' article , " Somebody Else 's Civil War , " he argued that the September 11 attacks were part of a religious conflict within the Muslim world . Doran wrote that Osama bin Laden 's followers " consider themselves an island of true believers surrounded by a sea of iniquity . " Hoping that U.S. retaliation would unite the faithful against the West , bin Laden sought to spark revolutions in Arab nations and elsewhere — war with America was never his end ; it was just a means to promote radical Islam . This article was " the first to advance the thesis ... that Osama bin Laden used the attacks of 9/11 as a tool for influencing a conflict between Muslims . " Doran received his Ph.D in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University in 1997 . His PhD advisor was L. Carl Brown . He attended Stanford University , graduating with a BA in History in 1984
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Michael Scott Doran