25 years after 9/11, how much has changed?

Twenty-five years after 9/11, how much has actually changed? 9/11 is one of those rare moments that divides history into a “before” and an “after.” On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer looks back at the attacks that reshaped US foreign policy, launched the war on terror, and ushered in an era of military intervention, mass surveillance, and profound geopolitical change. From the rise of China and Russia as security threats to social media and artificial intelligence reordering our politics and flow of information, the world today looks very different from the one we knew that September morning.

But some things haven’t changed nearly enough. America is once again fighting a war in the Middle East without a clear endgame or exit strategy. The surveillance state born out of 9/11 is still expanding, now including private companies that can track our location and recognize our faces. Looking back on how much the world has changed in the last quarter-century, what did we learn from the past 25 years… and are we ready for what comes next?