Powell was born in New York to Jamaican immigrant parents. He earned a degree in geology from the City College of New York in 1958 and was commissioned in the U.S. Army. Powell served two tours in Vietnam and was wounded and decorated for bravery. He subsequently served in a variety of military and politico-military posts. In 1987, Powell, then a lieutenant general, was appointed national security advisor to President Ronald W. Reagan. Promoted to general, Powell was named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President George H. W. Bush. As chairman, he continued the transformation of the U.S. military from its Cold War strategy and posture. Powell oversaw the 1989 invasion of Panama, designated Operation Just Cause, and the Persian Gulf War. The general deftly managed a broad-based military coalition of states with differing capabilities and goals. Powell refined the Weinberger Doctrine to create the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine (commonly known as the Powell Doctrine), which emphasized the use of overwhelming force and a clearly defined exit strategy.

Powell left government service in 1993 and became active as a philanthropist. In 1994, he undertook a mission to Haiti to restore democracy. In 1996, moderate Republicans endeavored to draft Powell for a presidential bid, but the former general declined to campaign after conservatives within the party vocally opposed the general's stance on issues such as abortion and affirmative action. In 2000, Powell served as a foreign policy advisor to candidate George W. Bush. Bush subsequently appointed Powell as the nation's first African-American secretary of state. Powell emerged as the leader of the moderate faction within the Bush administration's foreign and security policy officials. He generally advocated diplomacy and negotiation, with military action as a last resort. Powell's ideological opposites in the administration were Vice President Richard B. Cheney and Secretary of State Donald H. Rumsfeld. In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Powell was instrumental in creating the multinational coalition of the willing and garnering international support for Operation Enduring Freedom. The former general was particularly important in convincing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to invoke its collective defense clause, which required all allies to come to the aid of the United States. The secretary of state also managed the effort at the United Nations (UN) to secure the deployment of a post-Taliban peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Powell worked to modernize the State Department by updating equipment and technology and refurbishing embassies and consulates.

In 2002, Powell was tasked to build a new coalition of the willing to support a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. This time, he was able to develop only a reduced coalition that included America's main traditional allies, including Australia, Great Britain, Japan, and the Netherlands, and the newly democratized states of Eastern Europe such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Poland. The secretary was able to counter the hawks in the administration and convince Bush to endeavor to gain a UN resolution to support military action. However, the inability to secure a resolution marked a diplomatic defeat for Powell, whose influence waned following the 2003 Iraq War. His efforts to gather support to rebuild Iraq and deploy an international post-conflict peacekeeping force were only partially successful.

Powell supported intelligence reform initiatives, including the creation of a single office to oversee the country's intelligence agencies, the director of national intelligence. He clashed with Cheney and Rumsfeld over the treatment of detainees captured during the war on terror. Differences over Iraq policy and Powell's reduced influence within the administration after Iraq led to his resignation in 2004. After leaving office, Powell retired from public life, although he opposed the nomination of John R. Bolton as the nation's ambassador to the UN in 2005.

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