Introducing ‘Aftershock: The War on Terror’

14 November 2025

After 9/11, George W. Bush launched a global War on Terror. What followed was an unprecedented expansion of American power, from Guantánamo Bay to drone strikes, mass surveillance to the weaponisation of the financial system. Asked when it would end, Vice-President Dick Cheney replied: ‘Not in our lifetime.’ Two decades later, we’re still living in its shadow.

Aftershock: The War on Terror is a new six-part podcast from the London Review of Books. Daniel Soar, a senior editor at the paper, revisits the magazine’s coverage and reflects on the ways 9/11 has changed the world we live in.

Read anywhere with the London Review of Books app, available now from the App Store for Apple devices, Google Play for Android devices and Amazon for your Kindle Fire.

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