Use of Force Doctrine
The United States maintains the right to use force when necessary. However, the
legitimacy of our use of force is fulfilled when the international community
clearly understands the conditions under which force may be used. The number
of allies willing to contribute to our military action will decrease our economic
and military costs while increasing the legitimacy of action. The Weinberger
doctrine and the subsequent Powell doctrine guided national decisions to use
force for the last two generations. Properly used, the doctrine will guide our
national decision to take military action only in situations where the advantages,
path to victory, and end goals are clear and achievable. While maintaining our
commitment to international law and the United Nations Charter, the United
States may use force in the event that the Executive Branch answers each of the
following questions in the affirmative:
Is a vital national security interest threatened?
Do we have a clear attainable objective?
Have the military, economic, and social risks and costs at home and
abroad been fully and frankly analyzed?
Does the cost of not acting exceed the cost of acting, even in the event
that action does not follow a best or good-case scenario outcome?
Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
Is there a plausible exit strategy at each stage of action to avoid endless
entanglement?
Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
Does the American public support the action?
Do we have genuine broad international support that can reasonably be
expected to last throughout the entire course of engagement?
Although the doctrine implies an unwarranted restriction on the use of force, it
does so only to mitigate the unintended consequences that wars always have.
The United States will pursue our policies within the international system with
diplomacy, persuasion, and cooperation before resorting to force as a principle.
