U.S. President Donald Trump has developed a fundamentally new approach to military force that inverts the Powell Doctrine on every count - from the role of public debate to the definition of victory. Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security, laid out the case in a new Foreign Affairs analysis published as U.S. bombs were falling on Iran.
As reported by "Hvylya", Fontaine's article in Foreign Affairs traces the pattern across multiple Trump-era military operations - from Syria and Yemen to Venezuela and now Iran - identifying a consistent doctrine that prioritizes ambiguity, surprise, and flexibility over the clarity and decisiveness that Powell demanded.
The Powell Doctrine, developed during the Gulf War, held that force should be a last resort, employed only with clear objectives, public support, congressional authorization, and overwhelming military power. As Powell himself wrote, military leaders could not "quietly acquiesce in halfhearted warfare for half-baked reasons that the American people could not understand or support."
Trump's approach rejects each of these pillars. His attacks on Iran began while negotiations with Tehran were still underway. His administration issued no public ultimatums, sought no congressional vote, and articulated no clear exit strategy. Fontaine argues that for Trump, force is "not something to employ only when all other means have been exhausted, but rather one of several tools available to increase leverage, maximize surprise, and produce outcomes."
Instead of overwhelming decisive force, the Trump doctrine favors "short, sharp military actions" relying on airpower and special forces while excluding conventional ground troops. Instead of clear objectives, it embraces vague and shifting goals that allow the president to declare victory regardless of outcome. Instead of the Pottery Barn rule - "you break it, you own it" - Trump has signaled that the United States will not own the aftermath of whatever it breaks.
Fontaine acknowledges the approach has produced some results - the Houthi deal, the destruction of Iranian nuclear sites, the removal of Maduro. But he warns the strategy "does not pave the way for long-term peace but postpones conflict to another day." Iran, he argues, may be the test that exposes its limits.