This paper was presented at 15:00 hours local time in Ankara, Turkey on 11^th September 2001, which was also my father Chris’s 80th birthday and the 28th anniversary of the Pinochet coup in Chile. On the basis of an economic analysis of the world economy it surmises an entry into an ‘age of classical imperialism’ – a period of financial and military competition between advanced countries comparable to the period of classical imperialism from 1893-1918. The implication was that the coming era would be an age of war.

At the close of the session which was 17:00 hours local time, being 8 hours ahead of Eastern time, hence 9:00am Eastern time, I was scheduled for an interview on Turkish television. ‘First, there is something you should see’, said the reporter. He led me to the television van where CNN footage showing an aircraft impacting the first trade tower. The second impact occurred as I watched. I emerged from the van five hours later and the interview never took place.

The paper, presented to the Fifth International Conference in Economics organized by the Economic Research Center (ERC) of the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, September 11-13, 2001. It is substantially the same as that presented in Italian, on 1 June 2001, at a conference organised by Laboratorio per la Critica Sociale del Centro Studi Trasformazioni Economico-Sociali (CESTES-PROTEO), Rome University La Sapienza, La Sapienza, Rome. For that reason, I have provided both the Italian and the English language version of the paper.