The scenarios of biological or chemical warfare painted in detail by the American media during the months after September 11...only betray the inability of the government to determine the magnitude of the danger.

The misery in war-torn Afghanistan is reminiscent of images from the Thirty Years' War.

The clever, albeit fragile, coalition against terrorism brought together by the U.S. government might be able to advance the transition from classical international law to a cosmopolitan order.

Perhaps September 11 could be called the first historic world event in the strictest sense: the impact, the explosion, the slow collapse - a gruesome reality literally took place in front of a global public.

What was new was the symbolic force of the targets struck. The attackers did not just physically cause the highest buildings in Manhattan to collapse; they also destroyed an icon in the household imagery of the American nation.

Manhattan... capital of the 20th century, a city that has fascinated me for more than three decades.

From a moral point of view, there is no excuse for terrorist acts, regardless of the motive or the situation under which they are carried out.