Reflecting on the Wars on Terror

Historical periodisation is culturally and politically constructed, along with judgments about the wider significance of historical events. In this spirit, the Afterword compares the much greater significance attached in Western media representation to 9/11 as an epoch-making event than to the Bhopal industrial tragedy of 15 years before. Claims to historical novelty and significance, far from being politically innocent, are commonly entangled in a political agenda. More generally, although media has long played a central role in framing the public meaning of conflict, there has been an intensification of this process in recent years in the context of rapid technological change and quickening globalisation. While this process of interpreting war for public audiences is still influenced by national and media cultures and practices, many of the most significant discourses, such as those associated with war trauma, now have a wide global reach.