When the Pentagon and Twin Towers were struck on September 11, 2001, I was a US diplomat in Taiwan, focused on the globalization push coming from China’s impending accession to the WTO just three months later. My world changed dramatically that day, and 9/11 arguably set the world on a very different course that was felt by all of us, even if we were not living lives in the crosshairs of al-Qaeda.
A month after the attacks, I traveled to Washington for the birth of my younger son, entering an anthrax-fearing US. National Guard troops monitored my arrival at the airport, and American flags flew from many passenger vehicles as I headed to stay with my in-laws. As I helped my wife during an extended stay, the State Department contacted me and asked that I take a couple of days for special training on countering terrorist finance networks. I took that knowledge back to Taiwan, where it shaped the work I did over the years that followed and led me into future efforts tied to countering illicit finance, boosting export controls, and developing sanctions packages.
Meanwhile, 9/11 seemed to eclipse everything else, and I became acutely aware that the world was changing in other ways that few were registering. China went ahead with its WTO accession, arguably an earthquake moment in global economic history whose shockwaves are still being felt today. And on November 30th of that year, an economist at Goldman Sachs quietly coined a new term – BRIC, later BRICS – to highlight the growing importance of emerging economies. Most people hardly noticed, but Brazil, Russia, India, and China were definitely paying attention.
Years later, the countries began meeting under the BRIC banner – and made an institution out of it. Next week, the 18th BRICS Summit will be held in New Delhi, symbolizing in so many ways just how different the world is from the one we knew 25 years ago.
In the years since, I have spent much time working the threads of all three of these issues that bloomed in late 2001 — countering illicit finance, watching China’s rise, tracking the BRICS — and I still marvel at how much of today’s world was set in motion over just a few months, with almost no one paying attention.
