Barack Obama's election marks the beginning of the 21st century

The Bush administration entered the 21st century with 20th-century thinking about the threats it faced. The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama promises to bring fresh solutions to the unique challenges of our time. By shedding dated notions, the United States could rediscover the imperative of acting in concert with others to build global institutions that strengthen our security and foster our values.

By E.J. Dionne Jr

WASHINGTON — Social and political epochs rarely end precisely on schedules provided by calendars. Many historians date the end of Europe's 19th century to 1914 and the outbreak of World War I. What we call "The Sixties" in the United States, with its ethos of reform and protest, ended with Richard Nixon's landslide re-election in 1972 and the winding down of the Vietnam War.

In the same way, the outcome of this year's election means that 2009 will, finally, mark the beginning of the 21st century.

It comes as we face parlous economic conditions and a slew of new threats. Nonetheless, we should view this as an opportunity to embrace the words of one of Barack Obama's favorite presidents. "As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew," Abraham Lincoln declared in 1862. "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

For all the chatter about the world changing decisively after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, our reaction to the attacks was conditioned by 20th-century assumptions.

Instead of seeing the spasm of violence as representing something entirely new, President Bush's administration, aided by thinkers allied to its approach, resolutely forced events into the interpretive boxes fashioned in previous decades.

A band of reactionary terrorists whose actions reflected the weakness of their position were raised up to world-historical status. They were "totalitarians," which suggested they represented a threat as powerful as those embodied by Hitler and Stalin. They were "Islamofascists," a sobriquet that credited them with battling under the banner of a coherent, modern ideology when in fact they are inspired by a ragtag jumble of ideas rooted in the medieval past.

Osama bin Laden's commitment to reviving the power of the old Islamic "Caliphate" was taken to be as real as the danger of Soviet troops pouring across the old East German border or Hitler occupying Czechoslovakia. The new "global war on terror" was endowed with the same coherence as the old Cold War.

It was a dangerous and self-defeating set of illusions.

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