How 9/11 remade the Middle East

Few events have altered the geopolitical trajectory of the Middle East as profoundly as 11 September 2001. The attacks on New York and Washington did not merely trigger an American military response. They transformed the way power, sovereignty and security were understood across the region. The United States responded by declaring a global “War on Terror”, initially targeting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the campaign soon expanded into a broader doctrine of preventive war, regime change and military intervention. The Middle East became the principal theatre in which Washington tested a new conception of American power. The consequences…