TWENTY-FIVE years can change anything. This Friday when the US marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it was a remarkably different country from when the attacks took place. For much of the quarter century following the attack, the occasion was used to showcase patriotic zealotry, renew calls for attacking yet another Muslim country and spew the usual variety of slurs and insults against American Muslims. While the last persists, the former two have all but disappeared.

In its September/October 2026 issue, Foreign Affairs, the leading journal in Washington’s foreign policy circles, notes: “After 25 years, the United States may finally be closing a chapter that began with the attacks on September 11, 2001, and President George W. Bush’s declaration of a ‘war on terror’ days later.” Authors contributing to the issue sound a similar note, a remarkable departure from the war-mongering diatribes that featured in the magazine over the decades.

These included essays by former defence secretary William Perry who argued in 2001 that the US should fight terrorism with a global campaign rather than just a single military effort directed at one country. Similarly, former secretary of........

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