Map of Empire

I have been reading a lot of new found blogs since my harddrive autodestuction and removed my well worn digital paths in cyberspace (see below for the painful details). This piece was inspired but something I found on BlondbutBright. The 2005 Terrorism Risk Map:A world map showing color coded nations as regard to the calculated risk of terrorist attack. It is manufactured by the German Insurance Company AON, who incidently had 3 workers in the WTC when the planes hit (one is still "missing").

This map inspired in me thoughts of "the empire upon which the sun never sets". A global community (Empire?) held together by a common concern. The "Terror" which the AON map concerns itself with is purely unidirection, their press release centered around the risk of "increased Islamic extremist activity". This is in turn coupled with concerns that if the United States' "TRIA [Terrorism Risk Insurance Act] does expire at the end of this year the aggregate capacity of the stand-alone terrorism market is going to come under severe strain.".
So there is such a thing as "the stand-alone terrorism market". I am confused.
Further to this is the recent article about a speech by Australian Army Brigadier Justin Kelly, that there is no 'War on Terror':

"In a frank speech, Brigadier Justin Kelly dismissed several of the central tenets of the Iraq war and the war on terrorism, saying the "war" part is all about politics and terrorism is merely a tactic."

But then according to Brigadier Kelly why are so many countries devoting so much to this 'War':

"Our proximity to populations enables us to influence and control the populations, [it] enables us to dominate the environment, generate intelligence and eventually bring the conflict to a resolution,"

Sounds again like Empire to me.