The morning of 11 September 2001 began as an American tragedy, yet it proved a defining rupture in contemporary history. On that day, the United States did not simply suffer an unprecedented attack; the entire world underwent a profound transformation, with the Arabs finding themselves at its very centre.
Just a few years earlier, the US had stood at the zenith of its global power. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington emerged as the undisputed leader of a world order without serious challengers. A widespread conviction took hold: the Western liberal model had not only triumphed militarily, but also morally.
This was supposed to be an era in which conflicts would be resolved through markets and international institutions rather than warfare, and democracy would spread organically through globalisation and the influence of soft power. Building on the ruins of the Soviet bloc, the US launched a series of initiatives in the Arab world, most notably its sponsorship of Arab–Israeli peace negotiations throughout the 1990s and beyond.
Yet that unipolar moment proved short-lived. 9/11 laid bare the fragility of that vision and prompted the US to redirect its power along a radically different trajectory. The “war on terror” was not merely a security operation—it evolved into a political framework that pushed the boundaries of war and redefined its nature. It tested the limits of sovereignty and whitewashed foreign intervention.
The Middle East became a testing ground for this emerging global order. It began with the invasion of Afghanistan, followed by the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003. "Democracy" was promoted in both, where political systems were engineered. Regimes collapsed, but what replaced them were far from stable.
