World political effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks

The following worldwide effects arose from the September 11, 2001 attacks:

Civilian air traffic over central London was rerouted around the city's airspace and all flights to the United States and Canada were suspended.

Canada closed its airspace to civilian flights and received diverted international flights originally inbound for the United States

Further information: Operation Yellow Ribbon

The European Parliament at Berlemont, United Nations headquarters in New York, and NATO headquarters in Brussels were evacuated.

NATO activated Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949, declaring that if the terrorist attack received support by any state, it was an armed attack against the United States and hence was to be considered an armed attack against all the NATO member states. This is the first time in NATO's history that the collective defense obligation in the treaty has been activated.

The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, was on an official trip and was staying at a hotel not far from the Pentagon. As a precautionary measure, he was evacuated to a bunker inside the Australian embassy and subsequently moved to the ambassador's residence. He originally was going to address a joint session of US Congress on Wednesday; the joint session address was cancelled but he sat in the gallery of the US house and was acknowledged from there. He was originally to return to Australia by commercial jet; but due to the closure of US airspace he was unable to return by those means. As a result he was flown by the US Air Force to Honolulu, from which he returned to Australia by a special Qantas flight (Qantas was given a special dispensation from the closure of US airspace to take the PM and his party back to Australia.) Upon returning to Australia, Prime Minister Howard announced that Australia considered Article IV of the ANZUS treaty to be applicable to the terrorist attack on the United States.

Massive swings in opinion polls in Western countries after the attack favored incumbent leaders and governments.

Tens of thousands of Afghans attempt to flee the country following the attack, fearing attack in response by the United States. Pakistan closed its border with Afghanistan on September 17. However, it was already host to two million refugees from the twenty years of war in Afghanistan.

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