The "Powell Doctrine" is a journalist-created term, named after General Colin Powell in the run-up to the 1990-1991 Gulf War. It is based in large part on the Weinberger Doctrine, devised by Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense and Powell's former boss.

The Powell Doctrine states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:

As Powell said in an April 1, 2009 interview on The Rachel Maddow Show, the Doctrine denotes the exhausting of all "political, economic, and diplomatic means," which, only if those means prove to be futile, should a nation resort to military force. Powell has expanded upon the Doctrine, asserting that when a nation is engaging in war, every resource and tool should be used to achieve decisive force against the enemy, minimizing US casualties and ending the conflict quickly by forcing the weaker force to capitulate. This is well in line with Western military strategy dating at least from Carl von Clausewitz's On War.^{[citation needed]}

Marvin L. Kalb (born June 9, 1930) is an American journalist. Kalb was the Shorenstein Center's Founding Director and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy (1987–1999). The Shorenstein Center and the Kennedy School are part of Harvard University. He is currently a James Clark Welling Fellow at The George Washington University and a member of Atlantic Community Advisory Board.

Kalb spent 30 years as an award-winning reporter for CBS News and NBC News. Kalb was the last newsman recruited by Edward R. Murrow to join CBS News, becoming part of the later generation of the "Murrow's Boys." His work at CBS landed him on Richard Nixon's "enemies list". At NBC, he served as chief Diplomatic Correspondent and host of Meet the Press. During many years of Kalb's tenures at CBS and NBC, his brother Bernard worked alongside him.

Kalb has authored or coauthored nine nonfiction books (Eastern Exposure, Dragon in the Kremlin, The Volga, Roots of Involvement, Kissinger, Campaign ’88, The Nixon Memo, and One Scandalous Story) and two best-selling novels (In the National Interest and The Last Ambassador). His most recent book is about the haunting legacy of Vietnam, co-authored with his daughter.

Josh Powell (born January 25, 1983, in Charleston, South Carolina) is an American professional basketball player.

While playing at NC State, Powell averaged 12.4 ppg and 5.2 rpg in his sophomore year (2002–2003). He was not selected in the 2003 NBA Draft and played in Europe. However, he worked out for numerous teams and was eventually signed by the Dallas Mavericks, who were looking for a power forward to develop behind star Dirk Nowitzki. He played two games in 2003–04 with Lokomotiv-Rostov in the Russian Superleague before finishing the season with Euroride Scafati of the Italian Lega 2. In 2004–05, Powell averaged 16.6 PPG and 11.9 RPG with Pepsi Caserta of the Italian League.

At the beginning of the 2005–2006 season, Powell was in the D-League and put up solid numbers until he was called up to the NBA, where he played only in "garbage time," when the game had already been practically decided. But, after injuries to starting small forward Josh Howard and backup power forward Keith Van Horn, he began to get more time when Nowitzki was in need of rest.

Colin Luther Powell ( /ˈkoʊlɨn/; born April 5, 1937) is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military career, Powell also served as National Security Advisor (1987–1989), as Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989) and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993), holding the latter position during the Gulf War. He was the first, and so far the only, African American to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Colin Luther Powell was born on April 5, 1937 in Harlem, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, to Jamaican immigrant parents Maud Arial (née McKoy) and Luther Theophilus Powell. He also has Scottish ancestry. Powell was raised in the South Bronx and attended Morris High School, a former public school in the Bronx, from which he graduated in 1954. While at school, he worked at a local baby furniture store where he picked up Yiddish from the shopkeepers and some of the customers. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in geology from the City College of New York in 1958 and was a self-admitted C average student. He was later able to earn a Master of Business Administration degree from the George Washington University in 1971, after his second tour in Vietnam.

Randy Powell is a writer who has penned several books in the young adult literature genre. He was born in Seattle, Washington in 1956. Powell had an interest in sports, and his Little League football team won the State Championship when he was 11. While at the University of Washington he become more focused on his writing, and penned several short stories and novels. He is married, and is the father of two children.