Introdu ction 引言;前言;绪言 The opening decade of the twenty-first century has been overwhelmingly shaped by the American and world response to the terror attacks of 11 September 2001
Many analysts speak of a paradigm shift in foreign policy alignments, global economies, and domestic affairs
The events of the post (=late)-11 September world make the 1990s seem a vast, quaint (奇怪的) universe away
But we should note that analysts had christened (洗礼仪式) the last decade of the twentieth century as a “New World Order” under the common umbrella of democracy and free market capitalism
Certainly the decade marked a decisive end to the “post (after)-World War II” or “Cold War” world and ushered in a new era
The 45-year period following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the, division o