Aboard an aircraft carrier off the coast of California, President George W. Bush addresses the nation in front of the famous "Mission Accomplished" banner in 2003. (Credit: Stephen Jaffe/AFP)

From Sept. 11 to Iran, what remains of the neoconservative project?

Twenty-five years after the attacks, the movement that profoundly shaped U.S. foreign policy has lost its influence, despite Donald Trump's relentless wars.

10 Sep 2026, 20:10 by Dany MOUDALLAL · L'Orient Today

In January 1998, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a neoconservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., urged Bill Clinton to make regime change in Iraq an official objective. After Sept. 11, the ideas championed by this small circle moved from journals and think tanks to the epicenter of power – the government. The attacks provided an exceptional political pretext for a relatively small group of academics and officials who, since the end of the Cold War, had accused the United States of not using its power enough to transform the international order in favor of U.S. interests and the expansion of democracy around the world.A quarter-century later, as the fallout from the invasion and then occupation of Iraq has largely contradicted the predictions of these theorists, few important political figures still claim the...

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