This article was followed by a report prepared for the Pentagon by Paul Wolfowitz (at the request of Dick Cheney) with the help of Scooter Libby, Richard Perle, Zalmay Khalilzad, and others. The “Defense Planning Guidance” (DPG) report was not intended for public consumption but was leaked to the New York Times and the Washington Post. The document stated that the United States’ first objective should be to “prevent the re-emergence of a new rival.” It went on to assert that it must “establish and protect a new order” and that potential competitors should be convinced that “they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests.” In short, a pax Americana should be established on the military, political, and economic fronts. Even advanced industrialized nations would be discouraged from seeking to “overturn the [United States’] established political and economic order.” It followed from this that the United States would act alone if it needed to, in a unilateral manner, with no questions asked. This, the report stated, would guarantee world stability in a way that neither the United Nations nor any other multilateral coalitions could.

XREF: Connects to broader history of neoconservative foreign policy and the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War through key figures like Wolfowitz, Perle, Libby, and Khalilzad.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 383