The Effects of the Attacks on the Twin Towers in September 2001

The Purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of the terrorist attacks that were launched against the United States of America on September the 11TH 2001. It will look at the way in which the state has since legitimized its capabilities of force and violence. From looking at the United States response to the attacks, with what is widely known as the “war on terror” it hopes to uncover evidence to suggest that the attacks permitted the United States and consequently, the United Kingdom to undergo a process of legitimization of previously illegitimate acts of violence and force, consequently, causing a breakdown of individuals civil rights and the unlawful killing of many innocent civilians. It is hypothesized that this war on terror may lay evidence to propose that Hannah Arendt’s claim that the act of war ever becoming violent is unlikely within a nuclear postmodern world and furthermore, that violence and the threat of it can no longer be used as a means to reach political goals or achieve power. It could also suggest that the war on terror has consequently led to support Weber’s theory of the “Violence Monopoly of the State” (1919:59), in which Arendt aimed to dismiss the strength of in modern times. Furthermore the apparent long-term financial gain that the United States have been said to make from the sale and export of weaponry arms used in this war on terror, alongside the monopoly of oil supplies could support Marxist theorists’ view that violence of the state is ultimately linked to the economic forces of capitalism.

The Attacks upon the United States consisted of a succession of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon New York City and Washington, D.C. The attacks a...

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