ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how each element of the Powell Doctrine influenced or failed to influence the planning and execution of the US intervention in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been in a state of continuous warfare since the Soviet Union intervened to prop up a client regime in 1979. Lack of manpower and the sheer size of Afghanistan made it impractical for the Soviets to occupy the entire country in practice. The resistance groups in various parts of the country were able to set up parallel administrations which in large parts of rural Afghanistan were effectively able to supplant the government. The United States mainland had been attacked by a group that was based in Afghanistan and this group was tacitly supported by the authority that controlled most of Afghanistan. One of the aims of the administration was to establish democracy in Afghanistan by building stable institutions and a secure human environment that would also be inhospitable to terrorist group.
