Source: Carnegie
For Immediate Release: Scott Nathanson, 202-939-2211, snathanson@ceip.orgContact: August 20, 2002
Special Edition: Policy Brief Details 9/11 Effects Worldwide
The world has changed in remarkable ways in the year following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Carnegie president Jessica T. Mathews and a host of the Endowment's senior experts trace the global aftermath of that fateful day in a special edition policy brief, "September 11, One Year Later: A World of Change."
Starting at the source, Mathews notes, "The most important point is the most obvious: 9/11 changed the United States far more than it did the rest of the world. It tore away the sense of distance and difference that has enfolded us throughout our history." To help bring some clarity to the upheaval 9/11 has wrought in the international landscape, the brief breaks its analysis into areas of particular interest, including:
· The surprising lack of impact on the economy and continuing globalization;
· Russia's use of 9/11 to create a new relationship with the U.S. and
the West;
· China's new geopolitical landscape;
· Short term assets that could become long term liabilities in Central
Asia;
· The new U.S. responsibility for the seemingly intractable India-Pakistan
conflict;
· Intensified conflict in the Middle East, Arab democracy, and;
· The increasing strain on U.S.-European relations.
Mathews then looks to the future, exploring debates in the U.S. that 9/11 sharpened rather than resolved; including poverty, development, nation-building, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. "Two pending choices," she writes "will largely determine whether Washington comes to be seen as an aggressive new Rome." These are a possible new national security doctrine of preemption and "what America decides to do about Iraq and how it is done."
Finally, the brief points out one of the least heard, yet most important impacts of 9/11-the blotting out of other vital policy objectives, from a Latin America descending into crisis, to a rapidly changing climate, to ballooning budget deficits. Mathews concludes, "Washington's attention can only stretch so far, and now and for some time to come, 9/11 has cornered nearly all of it. That monopoly has heavy costs."
For copies of this brief, contact pubs@ceip.org, or visit online at www.ceip.org/pubs.
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