Well before the events of 9/11 supposedly changed everything, the
world was already changing. The world that was changing specifically
was the Westphalian one of 1812. It was the world of Klemens
Von Metternich. It was the world of the sovereign nation-state with
clearly defined borders that could be closed and policed to maintain
the integrity and security of a regime within fixed geographic borders.
It was a world that was static, fixated on clearly defined concept
of space. It was also a world that was fixed in time. It endured from
1812 through the Cold War. It was the world of international relations
theory that discussed politics in terms of realism and rational
actor models. It was a world that also defined international law from
the perspective of rules and norms that were centered on what nationstates
could or could not do.