The 11 September 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington and the ramifications define a new conjuncture for social movements and non-government organizations (NGOs). The global context preceding September 11 is important in understanding Washington's reaction afterwards and the effects that both have on the perspectives and the role NGOs can play in global politics. NGOs have multiplied by the tens of thousands over the past decade, reflecting a variety of political and social perspectives, sources of funding and political allegiances. The challenge for the NGOs today is to build movements that elaborate alternatives to five interrelated problems: war and terrorism, militarization and repression, deepening economic recession and global crises of markets, collapse of export strategies and vulnerability of neo-liberal regimes and mass unemployment and spread of poverty north and south.