Lawrence Wright, a Fellow at the Center for Law and Security at New York University’s School of Law, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for his book, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11(Alfred A. Knopf). The book tells the story of the Sept. 11 attacks through four principal characters: Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, John O’Neill, former head of F.B.I. counterterrorism, and Prince Turki al-Faisal. The award was announced yesterday at Columbia University, which administers the annual awards.

Founded in 2003, the Center on Law and Security is an independent, non-partisan, global center of expertise designed to promote an informed understanding of the major legal and security issues that define the post-9/11 environment. Towards that end, the Center convenes policy makers, practitioners, scholars, journalists and other experts to address major issues and gaps in policy discourse and to provide concrete policy recommendations.