"The first blow was struck by the events of 9/11 and, more significantly, by the way the United States in particular responded to this. Long cherished civil liberties were struck down and multiculturalism began to fray. Public spaces were boarded up. The backlash of the “war on terror” profoundly shaped developments in Europe, too, though some countries held out better than others. Above all, these years began to pose the question of a failing international order, as it was conceived at the end of the Cold War. Accustomed to projecting itself outward, the West was no subject to forces determined to break in."