The "Powell Doctrine" is a term named after General
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...
, for a military doctrine that Powell created in the run-up to the 1990–1991
Gulf War
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. The doctrine poses questions emphasizing national security interests, overwhelming strike capabilities with an emphasis on ground forces, and widespread public support,
all of which have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken. Powell's doctrine is based in large part on the
Weinberger Doctrine, devised by
Caspar Weinberger during his tenure as
Secretary of Defense (at which time Powell was Weinberger's senior military assistant).
Summary
The Powell Doctrine states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:
# Is a vital
national security
National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...
interest threatened?
# Do we have a clear attainable objective?
# Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
# Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
# Is there a plausible
exit strategy
An exit strategy is a means of leaving one's current situation, either after a predetermined objective has been achieved, or as a strategy to mitigate failure. An organisation or individual without an exit strategy may be in a quagmire. At wors ...
to avoid endless entanglement?
# Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
# Is the action supported by the American people?
# Do we have genuine broad international support?
As Powell said in an April 1, 2009, interview on ''
The Rachel Maddow Show'', it denotes a nation's exhausting of all "political, economic, and diplomatic means", which, only if all were futile, would result in the condition that the nation should resort to military force. Powell has also asserted that when a nation is engaging in war, every resource and tool should be used to achieve decisive force against the enemy, minimizing casualties, and ending the conflict quickly by forcing the weaker force to capitulate.
Analysis and commentary
The Powell Doctrine has been reported as an emerging legacy from the wars in
Korea
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
and
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
and the "Never Again vs. Limited War" policy debates (either win or don't start versus value of limited war) and Caspar Weinberger's Six Tests described in his 1984 speech "The Uses of Military Power".
It has been used to compare the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the
Iraq War
The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
.
See also
*
Bush Doctrine
*
Just war theory
The just war theory () is a doctrine, also referred to as a tradition, of military ethics that aims to ensure that a war is morally justifiable through a series of #Criteria, criteria, all of which must be met for a war to be considered just. I ...
*
Pottery Barn rule
*
Reagan Doctrine
*
Shock and awe
*
Weinberger Doctrine
References
Further reading
* Campbell, Kenneth J. "Once Burned, Twice Cautious: Explaining the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine." ''Armed Forces & Society'' 24#3 (1998): 357–74.
* LaFeber, Walter. "The rise and fall of Colin Powell and the Powell Doctrine." ''Political Science Quarterly'' 124.1 (2009): 71–93
online* MacMillan, John. "After Interventionism: A Typology of United States Strategies." ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' 30.3 (2019): 576–601
online* Meiertöns, Heiko. ''The Doctrines of US Security Policy: An Evaluation under International Law'', Cambridge University Press (2010), .
* Middup, Luke. ''The Powell Doctrine and US Foreign Policy'' (Ashgate, 2015
online
* O'Sullivan, Christopher D. ''Colin Powell: American Power and Intervention From Vietnam to Iraq'', New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, (2009)
* Record, Jeffrey. "Back to the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine?" ''Strategic Studies Quarterly,'' no. Fall (2007): 79–95.
* Walt, Stephen. "Applying the 8 Questions of the Powell Doctrine to Syria." ''Foreign Policy'' (September 13, 2013)
online* Yeatman, Scott T. "Modifying the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine for the Modern Geo-Strategic Environment." (''NDU/JFSC Joint Advanced Warfighting School,'' 2017
online
Primary sources
* Powell, Colin L. "U.S. Forces: Challenges Ahead." ''
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...
''; Winter 1992, Vol. 71 Issue 5, 32–45, 14
online* Powell, Colin L. and Joseph E. Persico. ''My American Journey'' (1995), autobiography.
{{Foreign relations of the United States, expanded=DPC
Military doctrines
Foreign policy doctrines of the United States
1990 in the United States
1990 in international relations