CIAO DATE: 06/2009
December 2008
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
The September 2001 attacks on the United States facilitated the formation of an effective domestic consensus on post-Cold War US globalism - a goal that had eluded the Clinton administration. The centerpiece of that consensus is the "war on terrorism." This puts US global engagement in a "war-fighting" framework, which has strong institutional, cultural, and ideological resonances in the American polity. And it admits both neo-conservative and neo-liberal varieties. However, the attendant surge in US military activism has proved both fabulously expensive and largely counter-productive. Moreover, it has helped undermine America's already-troubled hegemonic position within the Western and allied camp.
Resource link: 9/11 and the Paradox of American Power [PDF] - 185K