Challenges of a New Century
IntroducedA security aim does not establish every result
- An account describes military responses after the 2001 attacks and concludes that all security measures therefore succeeded.
- An aim to improve security is not evidence of universal success. Include lengthy conflicts and questions about civil liberties and human rights in the effects discussed.
Attacks, and the response
- In the wake of attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, the United States launched military efforts against terrorism and lengthy, controversial conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Lengthy and controversial are the CED's own adjectives, and both belong in an answer.
- In the wake of dates the response to the attacks, which places it in 7.11's pattern: a policy response after an attack, while intervention still involved decisions.
Select both adjectives the CED gives the conflicts.
Both belong in an answer.
Security against liberties
- The war on terrorism sought to improve security within the United States but also raised questions about the protection of civil liberties and human rights. But also — the CED puts the cost in the same sentence as the aim, as it did with 7.12's internment and 8.3's Red Scare.
- So this is the fourth instance in the course of an emergency producing questions about rights, and naming the pattern is worth a sentence.
The war on terrorism sought security but also...
The fourth instance of the same pattern in this course.
Energy and climate
- Conflicts in the Middle East and concerns about climate change led to debates over U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and the impact of economic consumption on the environment. Two different causes converging on one debate: a security problem and an environmental one.
- 8.13 had already recorded oil crises sparking attempts at creating a national energy policy; this is the same debate with climate added.
A military response, a domestic question, or an environmental debate?
Sort each element of 21st-century challenges.
Select both causes that converged on the energy debate.
A security problem and an environmental one.
"Lengthy, controversial" are the CED's own adjectives. The United States launched military efforts against terrorism and lengthy, controversial conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq — both words belong in an answer, and the security-versus-liberties sentence follows the pattern of 7.12 and 8.3.
'Despite economic and foreign policy challenges' signals...
The position persisted through a difficult period.
And the position held
- Despite economic and foreign policy challenges, the United States continued as the world's leading superpower in the 21st century. Despite concedes the challenges before stating the conclusion, which is how the CED usually signals a qualified claim.
- 7.14's most powerful nation on Earth is the earlier statement; this says the position persisted through a difficult period.
Select all the earlier instances of emergency raising rights questions.
The war on terrorism is the fourth.
Domestic and international challenges
- The objective is the causes and effects of the domestic and international challenges the United States has faced in the 21st century. International: attacks, lengthy conflicts, Middle East instability, and the superpower position maintained.
- Domestic: questions about civil liberties and human rights, and debates over fossil fuels and consumption.
Every emergency in this course produces the same question in a new form: how much of what is being defended may be suspended in order to defend it? The question recurs because no answer settles it in advance.
Carry the reasoning to a new case
- The attacks form context for policy choices; they did not remove decision-making from policymakers.
- Separate stated aims, actions, debated consequences and qualified claims about power.
Match each phrase to the role it plays.
Aims and actions need separate evidence of outcomes; an emergency does not make policy choices automatic.
In the wake of attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, the United States launched military efforts against terrorism and lengthy, controversial conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The war on terrorism sought to improve security within the United States but also raised questions about the protection of civil liberties and human rights. Conflicts in the Middle East and concerns about climate change led to debates over U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and the impact of economic consumption on the environment, and despite economic and foreign policy challenges, the United States continued as the world's leading superpower in the 21st century.