Excerpt of an old article in my files...
Michael T Klare
07/01/2000
Harvard International Review
The origins of the Rogue Doctrine can be traced to the final weeks of 1989, when General Colin Powell commenced a search for a new, postSoviet military doctrine. Recognizing that the threat of a US- Soviet clash had lost all plausibility in the wake of the Berlin Wall's collapse, Powell sought to construct a new threat scenario that would justify the preservation of America's superpower capabilities in a world with no Sovietlike opponent. Working closely with General Lee Butler, then Director of the Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate (J- 5) of the Joint Staff, Powell conceived of a strategy in which regional threats, not the monolithic threat of the Soviet Union, would govern US military planning in the years to come.
In constructing this strategy, Powell was fully aware that identifying a credible successor to the USSR was essential if the Pentagon was to avert a major military downsizing at the hands of Congress. Within days of the Wall's collapse, many members of Congress and other prominent figures began talking of a substantial "peace dividend" that would be made possible through a sizable reduction in US military spending. Fearful that precipitous congressional action would also deprive the Department of Defense of any sense of strategic coherence, Powell sought to establish a new strategic paradigm that could be used to argue against deep cuts in military spending and at the same time imbue the armed forces with a new sense of purpose.
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