The September 11
Attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon resulted in a radical change in
terms of international politics and the course of events. The sheer courage
with which a group of people tried to awaken the sleeping giant of America gave
rise to a whole new era of phenomena like Islamophobia, War on Terror, Homeland
Security and others. About 3000 people were killed in this act of terror that
shook the world but with this incident also gave rise to various counter
alternatives and conspiracy theories. The former Director General of ISPR is
quoted as saying that he finds it hard to believe that four airplanes are
brought into a synchronized hijacking and attack the securest two institutions
in of the most secure nations of the world. How it that the air transport
authorities is were incompetent to such an extent that they were not able to
intercept the coming of these planes for over forty minutes?
These and other
examples such as the results of this incident that took over such as the
invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq for reasons that proved to be wrong later
raises speculation as to was it really the work of a militant group or some
state agency? The fact that countries like Afghanistan and Iraq had almost
nothing to do with it were invaded and destroyed and the nation from which most
of those perpetrators belonged to, i.e. Saudi Arabia was made the strongest
ally in the Muslim world fails to satisfy the inquiring mind as to the veracity
of the media narrative.
I'm personally not a fan of 9/11 conspiracy theories. However, what is more important to examine is the long-term effects of these attacks. They fundamentally shifted US foreign policy, which has had a tremendous impact on international politics. This shift has dramatically impacted many parts of the world, but I feel as though this will be the last decade that terrorism will play such a major role in defining geopolitical events. With the rise of China, I believe we're heading back to the era of great power politics.
ReplyDeleteSir, can we pls discuss 9/11 in class more extensively? It is the defining moment of the last decade. A linchpin moment of sorts that changed world politics.
DeleteWe should definitely discuss it. Let's do it please.
Sure. I'll add some readings to the dropbox about it as well. Tentatively, I'm thinking about doing additional stuff on 9/11 come Tuesday, then Green IR theory on Thursday, and then propaganda the following Tuesday. Of course, all of that will be alongside the normally assigned reading and will entirely be optional.
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