ABSTRACT
It is useful to think of the 1990s as an interwar decade, though it is a controversial thesis (Gray, 1994). This latest interwar period dates from November 1989, when the Wall came down in Berlin, to 9/11 (i.e., 11 September) 2001, when the global political and strategic contexts were dramatically altered. What happened on 9/11 was the equivalent of the Wall Street Crash of 29 October 1929. Just as understanding of the 1920s and 1930s is organized into the periods before and after the Crash and the subsequent Depression, so the post-Cold War period should be divided into the years pre-and post-9/11.
