Ten years after 9/11, the instant history is being written. In the French newspaper Le Monde, a highly intelligent commemorative supplement dubbed the period "The Decade of Bin Laden." But is that right?
In the 10 years since 9/11, the combined GDP of Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRICs) rose from 8.4 percent of the global economy to 18.3 percent. Anglo-Saxon-style capitalism crashed.
Moreover, it was the decade when Internet access went global — from 360 million people in 2000 to more than two billion people today. It was a time when the war in Iraq divided the world, but also when a civilian surge for freedom finally hit the Middle East, as millions of Muslims turned for inspiration to democratic governance, not global jihad.