9/11 Perspectives: Transformation in U.S. Middle East Policy

This video is part of a special Council on Foreign Relations series that explores how 9/11 changed international relations and U.S. foreign policy. In this video, Steven Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations discusses how the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 transformed the United States’ Middle East policy. Cook argues the attacks led to the conclusion that "authoritarian stability -- that is, relying on authoritarian leaders in the region to help create a political order that made it relatively easier for the United States to pursue its interests in the region -- was perhaps no longer appropriate." Instead, U.S. policy has been devoted from that point on to "fostering democratic change in the Middle East."