The U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks did more than reshape the Middle East and Central Asia — they also provided critical lessons for rival powers Russia and China. According to journalists Mikhail Zygar and Cindy Yu, both Moscow and Beijing closely studied America's prolonged military entanglements and used them to recalibrate their own strategic ambitions and foreign policy doctrines. The conflicts are now seen as a turning point that emboldened both nations to challenge the U.S.-led international order, informed by what they perceived as the limits of American military power.