Virtual Regime: A New Actor in the Geopolitical Arena

American foreign policy decision makers altered their understanding of the sovereign territorial state on September 11, 2001. The loss of lives and property in New York City, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania reversed America's general belief that the oceans and superpower status guaranteed “home security.” That dramatic act of violence against civilians and symbols of U.S. culture crystallized the distinction between the ideologies of democracy and terrorism, which in turn forced geopolitical horizons to expand beyond traditional thinking.