The emotional and political shock of the 9/11 attacks, plus the subsequent wars framed as spreading liberal democracy, constituted a decisive turning point that undermined confidence in cosmopolitan liberalism and seeded long‑run backlash and realignment in Western politics. The piece argues that the same liberal ideals were invoked to justify militarized intervention, and the failure of those interventions delegitimized the internationalist project in practice.
— If accepted, this frame reframes debates about intervention, populist backlash, and transatlantic politics by situating contemporary illiberal trends as downstream consequences of post‑9/11 choices.
Matthew Yglesias
2026.09.10
100% relevant
Matthew Yglesias’ Slow Boring podcast episode asserts that Bush’s framing of the post‑9/11 wars as expressions of universal liberal values and the wars’ subsequent failures are a major origin point for today’s 'crisis of global liberalism' (event: 9/11; actors: George W. Bush, architects of the Iraq War).
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