The Dialectic of War

The 9/11 Wars started with a strategic shock and seemingly ended with another last August.  The shock was not the US withdrawal from Afghanistan - one could argue the wisdom of that either way - the shock is the manner in which it was carried out - unilateral and also inept.   In this short piece I will outline what the implications of this shock may be not so much for the US as for the rest of the world and in particular that part which we still sometimes call the West.  The article will first examine how we got to this point, how and why the so-called Wars of Choice, or Liberal Wars, went so awry and then consider the implications for the West, and the UK in particular, in a world in which liberal hegemony feels much less secure than it once did.  The shock isn't the victory of the Taleban, the shock is the realisation that the US has decided there are limits to its will and ability to project power.  The implications of this are likely to have profound consequences for internati