American grand strategy in the age of terror

The surprise attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have been called this generation’s Pearl Harbor, exposing America’s vulnerabilities to the outside world and triggering a fundamental reorientation of foreign policy. President George W. Bush’s speech to Congress on 20 September has likewise been seen by some as the most important statement of American grand strategy since President Harry Truman’s Greece and Turkey speech of 12 March 1947, when the United States declared its determination to fight communism world-wide. Indeed, to some, 11 September marks the end of the post-Cold War era. Many observers expected that the end of the Cold War would usher in dramatic and destabilising shifts in world politics. Forecasts of post-Cold War breakdown and disarray missed an important fact: in the shadow of the Cold War, a distinctive and durable political order was being assembled among the major industrial countries.