On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda hijackers struck New York and Washington, shocking the world and prompting the United States to launch a far-reaching “war on terror.” The response to these events left virtually no domain of US foreign policy or Middle Eastern political economy untouched. The attacks also reverberated powerfully in popular culture, both in the US and around the world. Middle East Report 260 takes the measure of a deeply consequential decade.