Professor Alan Ryan on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001

An article by Alan Ryan was published in Times Higher Education on 22 September entitled States of emergency, with the subheading Alan Ryan on the post-9/11 decade and one increasingly divisible nation.

In the article, Alan says, We can all praise the courage of firefighters and police and be astonished at their readiness to do suicidally dangerous things in the hope of rescuing people trapped in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. We can all sympathise with the bereaved. But there is just about nothing else you can say that doesnt gore some politicians ox. Have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq been successful? Have they increased terrorism? The answers seem clearly no and yes.

The full article can be read here.

(Picture courtesy of Jeffmock.)

Alan Ryan is emeritus professor of political theory, University of Oxford.