The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was established in 1997 by William Kristol and Robert Kagan and served as the most explicit institutional vehicle for the neoconservative policy agenda leading up to the Iraq War. PNAC’s January 1998 letter to President Bill Clinton calling for Iraqi regime change was signed by figures who would subsequently staff the George W. Bush administration, including Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, Richard Armitage, William Kristol, Robert Kagan, Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle, and others.
In its September 2000 document, “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” PNAC called for substantial increases in American military spending and presence, noting that the necessary political conditions for these changes might require a “catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor.” The September 11 attacks provided exactly the catalyzing event the document had described, and the operations that followed substantially implemented the framework PNAC had outlined.
PNAC’s influence extended beyond the Iraq War, shaping broader American foreign policy decisions and contributing to the capture of U.S. foreign policy by a network of beneficiaries. The organization’s policy agenda emphasized the expansion of American military power and the promotion of democratic values abroad, often through interventionist means.
Related: capture.md, foreign-policy.md, American Enterprise Institute, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
See Also
capture.md, foreign-policy.md, american-enterprise-institute.md, foundation-for-defense-of-democracies.md