In 1998, Philip Zelikow imagined "an act of catastrophic terrorism...like Pearl Harbor [that] would divide our past and future into before and after, ushering in crackdown on civil liberties, mass surveillance, and war. (h/t @ChrisRulon) foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite… 
This was remarkably similar to the infamous language in PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses," which spoke of a great transformation initiated by "a catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." web.archive.org/web/2013081712…
Interestingly, Zelikow, in a 2017 speech and a 2019 book co-written with Condi Rice, would begin to use a very similar term–"catalytic episodes." These episodes, he said, play "a disproportionate role in history" and "arise out of systemic crisis." theatlantic.com/international/…
Zelikow anticipated that "the world is slouching toward another cycle of grave systemic crisis" and that US should act strategically to create catalytic episodes to maintain its dominance and counter its rivals, namely China.
Zelikow was, of course, executive director of the 9/11 Commission a few years after writing that "Pearl Harbor" passage. Now, a few years after his "catalytic episodes" speech, he's being considered to lead a national Covid Commission. Just sayin'. news.virginia.edu/content/congre…
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