The Symbolic Warfare of 9/11: The Construction of the Enemy Image and the Institutional Crisis of the Unipolar World Order
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/jia.2026.2.1.116Keywords:
September 11, state of exception, enemy image, cultural hegemony, IslamophobiaAbstract
This article examines the 9/11 attacks not merely as a military event or act of transnational terrorism, but as a transformative symbolic performance that fundamentally reconfigured the architecture of global political meaning and redefined global political identity. Utilizing a cultural-anthropological framework, the study analyzes the transition from a single day of violence to a twenty-year Global War on Terror. The research focuses on the mechanisms by which the enemy image is constructed and the institutionalization of a permanent state of exception within the liberal world order. It argues that these processes operated not only through formal policy instruments but also through diffuse cultural and media practices that normalized exceptional governance across societies. By examining the intervention in Afghanistan, the authors demonstrate how security-driven discourses reproduced new forms of ethnocentrism, mass surveillance, and Islamophobia. The study concludes that 9/11 catalyzed a profound internal crisis of liberal governance and the emergence of novel modalities of global control.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Dr. Artak S. Khachatryan, Araik E. Mkrtumyan, Abgar N. Barseghyan, Dr. Mkhitar R. Gabrielyan
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