The most unpredictable result of the aftermath of 9/11 was surely the massive implosion of US global power. A lot was of course predictable in the aftermath. It was clear that the US state would appoint itself the “global executioner,” as we suggested then, although less clear how this would work through. [...]
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After September 11
Global Executioner: Scales of Terror
by Neil Smith
The French philosopher Joseph de Maistre argued that insofar as human beings were constantly tempted to evil by their deepest passions, the maintenance of a peaceful social order ultimately depended on a single person, the executioner. It was much the same with nation-states, according to Maistre, which “are born and die like individuals” and have […]