One year can make a big difference. In January 2009, global unemployment was soaring, the international financial system was in near-meltdown, world trade was in free fall, and economists were warning that a turnaround was not in sight. Governments faced the prospect of widespread social instability and popular unrest, and historians were recalling that the Great Depression set the stage for World War II. In February, the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, told the U.S. Congress that the global economic crisis had replaced terrorism as “the primary near-term security concern of the United States.”
Since then, international stock markets have rebounded, unemployment rates have leveled off, world trade has picked up and the global economy is growing again. On Christmas Day, an apparent al-Qaida attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet in flight reminded Americans that terrorist attacks were still a danger. Intelligence officials are no longer describing global economic problems as the paramount U.S. security concern.