ABSTRACT
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, three major events promulgated a profound reconfiguration of international politics. The first was the 11 September 2001 attacks upon the US; 9/11, it is widely agreed, ‘changed everything’. The second event was the Iraq war of 2003; the third event was the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008, the longer-term implications of which are still exceptionally opaque. The three events are integrally linked; the 9/11 attacks drove the United States to develop forceful foreign and security strategies, redefining its relations with India, China and Russia in the global war on terror. The Iraq war divided both the Islamic world and the US’s traditional allies, while simultaneously shifting the US budget from surplus to deep deficit. Finally, the 2008-09 global financial crisis exacerbated the US debt spiral and, according to some commentators (see Dadush and Stancil 2009, Fisk 2009), the balance of financial power by the end of the decade had shifted decisively to China.
