In poignant ceremonies over the weekend, the US marked the tenth anniversary of, what have come to be known as, the 9/11 attacks (see Dalby, 2011:199 for a discussion of this numerical specification, rather than spatial context, of events) (McFadden, 2011).

The current issue of Geographical Journal (2011) is a themed edition entitled Ten years after: September 11^th and its aftermath.  It contains papers from an array of perspectives, designed to encourage reflection on changing geographies (geopolitics in particular) of the last decade, and contemporary reflections on the significance of the 9/11 event.  This work is focused on the legacies of September 11^th, in terms of how things have changed in the world, and how we conduct scholarly investigations around these changes.

Contributions to this special issue include commentaries on oil, border security, India-US relations, immigration enforcement, as well as contemporary artistic productions that have re-imagined processes of militarization and governmentalization.  In the final paper of this set, Gregory critically discusses the geographical dimensions of wars that have played out in the shadow of September 11^th.  He focuses on three (what he terms as ambiguous) “global borderlands”; (i) Afghanistan – Pakistan, (ii) US – Mexico, and (iii) cyberspace.  He suggests that together they comprise “a distinctly if not uniquelyAmerican way of war” (Gregory, 2011:240).

In a similar way to the weekend’s commemorations and media attention around the tenth anniversary, these papers offer a meaningful commentary of some of the ways in which the world that we know, has changed.

To view the original article please visit the Geography Directions Blog.