2001 marked the September 11 attacks in the United States , renewing academic interest in issues of foreign policy and nation building . Ignatieff 's text on Western interventionist policies and nation building , '' Virtual War : Kosovo and Beyond , '' won the Orwell Prize for political non-fiction in 2001 . As a journalist , Ignatieff observed that the United States had established " an empire lite , a global hegemony whose grace notes are free markets , human rights and democracy , enforced by the most awesome military power the world has ever known . " This became the subject of his 2003 book '' Empire Lite : Nation-Building in Bosnia , Kosovo and Afghanistan '' , which argued that America had a responsibility to create a " humanitarian empire " through nation-building and , if necessary , military force . This would become a frequent topic in his lectures . At the Amnesty 2005 Lecture in Dublin , he offered evidence to show that " we would n't have international human rights without the leadership of the United States "
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Michael Ignatieff