And so ideals, illusions and reality collided on September 11th 2001 and in the two wars – Afghanistan and Iraq – that followed. The eventual failure of those wars also flipped on its head the prevailing spirit in the West about military intervention overseas: from being a growing moral duty, in many eyes in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it reverted to being seen as an outgrowth of colonial heavy-handedness, arrogance and even brutality. “Responsibility to protect” turned into “responsibility to steer clear”.
