Europe1 .fr 5:06 pm, September 11, 2021

Twenty-years after September 11, 2001, Olivier Roy, political scientist specializing in Islam, draws up, at the microphone of Thomas Lequertier, an assessment of the world after.

If he recognizes that these attacks have upset the West, he nevertheless believes that nothing has changed politically and strategically.

Explanations. 

INTERVIEW

How did September 11, 2001 change our world?

What lessons has the West learned from these unprecedented attacks?

Invited to the microphone of Thomas Lequertier on Europe 1, Olivier Roy, political scientist specializing in Islam, analyzes, twenty years later, the impact of the attacks on our society.

According to him, nothing has really changed politically and strategically.

A fundamental change, but only in terms of security

"There are two plans. The first plan is obviously security. On this side, there has been a fundamental change with the development of intelligence, cooperation and the efficiency of services. ultimately resulted in a surveillance society that affects many areas other than that of terrorism, "he explains before establishing a much more bitter observation.

"On the other hand, politically and strategically, we cannot say that the world has changed."

"We cannot fight terrorism by a territorial occupation"

Why ? Because the Americans have not succeeded in "restructuring" the Middle East as they wanted. "They tried to establish democratic states and stabilize the region by invading Iraq and Afghanistan," said Olivier Roy. "Twenty years later, it is a failure. We see that we cannot fight terrorism by a territorial occupation with the help of an army." Proof of this is that the Taliban managed to retake Kabul last August. The United States left Afghanistan, leaving its enemies now masters of the country. Like a return to square one, after twenty years of a war that claimed the lives of 2,465 American soldiers. “Afghanistan no longer has any strategic interest for the Americans.They went there only to try to kill Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, "said Olivier Roy." They took ten years to kill him. But they had no problem with the Taliban when they were in power from 1996 to 2000 ”. 

A commemoration that has nothing political

For the political scientist, the commemorations of September 11 therefore have above all an "emotional dimension".

We remember the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the planetary shock that followed, the terror, the astonishment.

And we also celebrate the memory of the 3,000 victims to "try to ward off terror and fear".

But no, we are not commemorating a political upheaval in any way because so little has changed in the end.