By Rafael Floqi/
On September 11, 2001, the world was shaken by terrorist attacks that struck the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, killing nearly 3,000 people. These events marked a critical juncture in international relations, often compared to Pearl Harbor (1941) as an act that altered the course of American and global politics (Kissinger, 2014). Beyond the human tragedy, September 11 redefined global security, placing non-state actors at the center of the international agenda and reshaping geopolitics from the Middle East to Afghanistan and beyond.
From Unipolarity to Asymmetric Threats
After the end of the Cold War, the United States was perceived as the sole hegemonic power—what Charles Krauthammer (1990) called the “unipolar moment.” However, September 11 demonstrated that unipolarity did not guarantee absolute security. Al-Qaeda’s attacks, which turned civilian aircraft into weapons, revealed the asymmetric nature of modern threats: small, stateless actors could challenge a superpower.
As Brzezinski (2004) observed, these events marked the end of the illusion that technological and military dominance alone could secure the global order. Instead, September 11 shifted the focus from interstate rivalry to transnational networks of violence.
The War on Terror and a New Strategic Doctrine
In response, President George W. Bush declared a “War on Terror” and articulated the doctrine of pre-emptive strike in the National Security Strategy (2002). This represented a departure from the Cold War’s containment doctrine. For Bush, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists” (Bush, 2001) became a dividing line that polarized international politics.
Iraq was invaded in 2003 under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction—a claim later proven unfounded. Historian John Lewis Gaddis (2004) viewed this as the moment when the United States transformed insecurity into a doctrine of proactive intervention.
Afghanistan: The Beginning and the End of a Cycle
The first intervention occurred in Afghanistan (2001), aimed at dismantling Al-Qaeda and overthrowing the Taliban. Yet, after two decades of war, the United States and NATO withdrew in August 2021. President Joe Biden declared: “We went to Afghanistan to eliminate Al-Qaeda, not to build a nation” (Biden, 2021).
The chaotic withdrawal was widely perceived as a strategic defeat, allowing the Taliban to regain power and raising doubts about U.S. credibility toward its allies. Analyst Hal Brands (2021) described it as “a Waterloo for the myth of limitless American power.” For China and Russia, the failure symbolized declining U.S. leadership, while for non-state actors it offered renewed inspiration for resistance.
The Middle East: Fragmentation and New Rivalries
The consequences of September 11 in the Middle East were profound. The Iraq invasion destroyed regional balances and paved the way for the rise of ISIS (2014). As Gerges (2016) notes, ISIS emerged directly from the power vacuum created by postwar mismanagement.
Iran emerged as a strategic winner, expanding influence through Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq, and support for the Syrian regime. Nasr (2006) described this as the “Shia revival” in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia and Sunni powers intensified their rivalry with Iran, most visibly in Yemen and Syria.
Israel now faces a renewed strategic encirclement by Iran-backed forces such as Hamas and Hezbollah, highlighted in the escalation after October 7, 2023.
Instead of externally imposed stability, the region has become a “mosaic of crises” where regional and global powers collide over fragmented political landscapes.
Implications for the Balkans and the Albanian Sphere
Though geographically distant, the Balkans were not immune to post-9/11 dynamics. Albania strongly aligned with the United States, contributing to missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, strengthening its NATO accession credentials (2009).
In Kosovo, U.S. engagement after 2001 proved decisive for the 2008 declaration of independence. Meanwhile, the global counterterrorism discourse was instrumentalized by some regional governments to justify tighter control over local Muslim communities, reflecting how global narratives influence domestic politics.
Twenty-four years later, September 11 remains a geopolitical turning point that reshaped the global order. It marked the end of the unipolar illusion, the rise of regional rivalries, and the empowerment of non-state actors as central challengers to international security. The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the fragmentation of the Middle East demonstrate that military power alone is insufficient for sustainable stability.
As Kissinger (2014) warned, “world order requires a balance between power and legitimacy.” Without such balance, the legacy of September 11 will be an increasingly unstable global system where history risks repeating itself in new forms.
Photo by: National September 11 Memorial & Museum