In a May 2015 interview with BBC 's '' HARDtalk '' , speaking as President of the Council on Foreign Relations , Haass predicted a new era in world history , in part due to the muting of U.S. dominance by the more diffuse power wielded by states and non-state entities as a result of the proliferation of nuclear arms and cyberterrorism , and several policy failures , which may bring about an " era of disorder " in the absence of any clear superpower . The failures in policy he points to are many of the rationales leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq , including the notion that the Iraqi regime had any involvement with the September 11 attacks or terrorism in general , but excluding the prominent intelligence of the time which indicated that Saddam Hussein 's regime did most likely possess weapons of mass destruction , a point which he now concedes along with many of his colleagues and the international intelligence community " got wrong " . He explained that he believes the existing problems of the region which were exacerbated by the " ill-advised " invasion of Iraq were compounded by subsequent errors , including the withdrawal of U.S. troops carried out under the Obama administration . Another major error , according to Haass , was the failure of the United States and the United Kingdom to intervene after it became clear that chemical weapons had been used during the Syrian civil war , leaving room for the Islamic State to gain a foothold . He has also stated he was against U.S. involvement in the Libyan Civil War , but said that if becoming involved was unavoidable , better follow up was an absolute necessity not fulfilled , resulting in a situation in which the people of Libya are " arguably worse off now than they were under the deeply flawed leadership of Muammar Gaddafi . " These seemingly incongruous positions , he argues , demonstrate that consistency , when it comes to foreign relations , " is a bad idea " , and that each situation requires a custom-fit approach . Maintaining a consistent interventionist or conversely non-interventionist foreign policy , for example , would be a mistake
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Richard N. Haass