Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the United States is marking the 9/11 25th anniversary and remembering the nearly 3,000 people killed on one of the darkest days in its modern history.

But a quarter of a century later, the legacy of 9/11 raises another uncomfortable question: did America’s War on Terror ultimately weaken some of the global power it was intended to protect?

The September 11 attacks transformed US foreign policy almost overnight. Within 18 months, America had invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, expanded counterterrorism operations around the world and built a far-reaching security architecture.

Twenty-five years later, the record is complicated.

The War on Terror – Did America Win?

The United States entered the post-9/11 era with extraordinary military, economic and diplomatic power. Terrorism quickly became one of Washington’s defining foreign policy priorities.

There were significant successes.

Al-Qaeda was severely weakened, Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan in 2011, and the United States has not suffered another foreign terrorist attack on the scale of September 11.

Yet the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) argues that the War on Terror failed to produce a decisive victory.

Afghanistan and Iraq became long and bloody conflicts. Civilian casualties and controversial interrogation practices damaged America’s global image, while public support eventually soured on what became known as the “forever wars.”

CFR foreign policy expert James M. Lindsay says one of the central lessons is that the ambitions of the War on Terror eventually exceeded what American power could realistically achieve.

That distinction matters. The United States proved it could destroy terrorist networks and topple governments. Transforming the societies that followed proved considerably harder.

Afghanistan Exposed the Limits of US Military Power

Nowhere is that contradiction clearer than Afghanistan.

US forces helped remove the Taliban from power following 9/11. Twenty years later, American troops withdrew and the Taliban returned to power.

In CFR’s global assessment of the War on Terror, experts warn that counterterrorism can fail when its objectives become too broad or when military intervention attempts to solve deeper political and social problems.

The lesson is difficult to ignore: winning battles is not necessarily the same as achieving lasting political outcomes.

The Legacy of 9/11 Went Beyond the Battlefield

The consequences were not confined to Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Guardian’s 25-year retrospective points to expanded surveillance, controversial detention and interrogation programmes, rising mistrust and damage to America’s moral authority as part of the wider post-9/11 legacy.

The War on Terror also consumed enormous political attention and resources over two decades.

Meanwhile, the international order was changing.

By 2026, terrorism is no longer the dominant challenge confronting many governments. CFR’s global experts note that states are increasingly dealing with interstate conflict, rapidly changing technology and new security threats alongside terrorism.

RT argues more forcefully that the post-9/11 wars accelerated the erosion of American hegemony and contributed to the emergence of a more multipolar world.

That conclusion remains contested.

The United States is still one of the world’s most powerful countries, backed by enormous military capabilities, economic influence, technological strength and an extensive network of alliances.

9/11 did not end American power.

But the 25 years that followed exposed something more uncomfortable: even a superpower has limits.

A Generation Now Knows 9/11 as History

There has also been a generational shift. Millions of adults alive today were born after September 11, 2001.

AP reports that younger Americans increasingly encounter 9/11 as history rather than memory. Yet they inherited many of its consequences, from heightened airport security and expanded surveillance to wars that continued for much of their childhoods.

For victims’ families, survivors and first responders living with the consequences of the attacks, however, September 11 has never simply become history.

Twenty-five years later, America can point to terrorist plots disrupted, enemies defeated and another 9/11-scale foreign attack prevented.

It can also look back on wars that lasted decades, damaged trust and revealed the limits of military power.

The question is no longer only how September 11 changed America.

It is whether the choices America made afterward also helped change the balance of power around it.

Source and References

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https://www.cfr.org/articles/the-lessons-of-september-11?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://www.cfr.org/articles/the-war-on-terrorism-global-experts-reflect-on-lessons-learned-twenty-five-years-after-9-11?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/sep/11/september-11-dark-legacy?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://apnews.com/article/sept-11-attacks-25th-anniversary-911-e73908a86b2707b245c843765e2a66f7
https://apnews.com/article/sept-11-national-grief-memory-impact-a677ea529e6f42147fde2d01ce9a6d9b
https://www.rt.com/news/645409-september-11-end-of-american-hegemony/?utm_source=chatgpt.com