Wolfowitz Doctrine

The term "Wolfowitz Doctrine" is an informal label used for an unofficial version of the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Planning Guidance (DPG) for the 1994–1999 fiscal years (FY 94-99), dated February 18, 1992. As the first DPG after the Cold War, and after the Gulf War, the draft described the United States as the world’s sole superpower and made preventing the emergence (or re-emergence) of a global or regional competitor the central strategic objective. This included preventing any hostile power's dominance of strategically important regions whose resources could generate global power. It argued that U.S. military forces should remain sufficiently strong to deter potential competitors, even in the absence of a comparable adversary, while retaining the ability to act unilaterally, or with limited allied support, if collective security arrangements proved inadequate to protect vital U.S. interests. This implied preemptive measures. The memorandum, drafted by a team led by Under Secretary of Defense Policy Paul Wolfowitz and supported by Dick Cheney, was leaked to the public before seen by President George W. Bush, and met with considerable public criticism. The following versions up to Cheney's 1993 Defense Strategy for the 1990s were more subtle in tone, but retained its principles. The official National Security Strategies (NSS) 1991 and 1993 follow similar lines as the draft DPG. The same strategic objectives were also practically pursued during the presidency of Bill Clinton and explicitly reaffirmed under George W. Bush ("Bush Doctrine"). Parallels were also drawn between the emphasis on primacy in the 1992 draft and elements of the 2025 National Security Strategy. The draft DPG of February 18, 1992, was originally classified; years later, it was officially declassified and published, although parts of the text remain blacked out and the detailed deployment scenarios in the appendix are still missing in their entirety...