Tarkin Doctrine/Legends

The Tarkin Doctrine, also known as the Doctrine of Terror, Rule of Fear, Doctrine of Fear, Galaxy of Fear: Planet Plague, p. 2 and officially known as Imperial Communiqué #001044.92v, was a message originally sent directly to Emperor Palpatine from then Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. The transmission detailed Tarkin's concept of maintaining order and increasing security within the Galactic Empire by means of state terrorism. It became one of the most important documents regarding Imperial policy.
==Overview==
The Tarkin Doctrine was an evolutionary concept. It had its roots in 29 BBY, when Raith Sienar presented his plans for the Expeditionary Battle Planetoid to then-Commander Tarkin. Tarkin was fascinated by the concept: as an officer in the Republic Outland Regions Security Force, he had seen the chaos caused by the absence of government in the Outer Rim Territories. His own experience with the Galactic Senate was also a factor in this, as it split the galaxy into thousands of sectors with a senator each claiming to represent trillions of citizens, which led to chaos.Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide To create a navy large enough to police the entire galaxy would be ruinously expensive, and could still be overcome by an opponent making use of hit-and-run strikes and a stateless strategy. Tarkin saw Sienar's design, improved with the addition of a weapon powerful enough to seriously damage a planet, as the solution to this strategic conundrum: no world, he believed, would dare harbor pirates or defy central authority if the punishment was the destruction of their planet.The Essential Atlas He also had experience with how he was trying to pursue pirates within his sector, only for them to go deep into another sector, where they would exploit jurisdiction laws where Tarkin was unable to continue his pursuit without possibly entering conflict with another moff.Death Star Technical Companion
Tarkin plagiarized Sienar's concept and presented it to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who ordered the beginning of research that would eventually lead to the Death Star. Another influence on the development of the Tarkin Doctrine was the creation of the sector armies of the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars and the re-installation of the office of the Governor-Generals, which overrode existing sector bordersThe Essential Guide to Warfare
Tarkin presented his complete concept to Emperor Palpatine in 18 BBY. The Doctrine called for three primary principles: Territorial Consolidation; Rapid Communication; and, most infamously, the Rule of Fear.
Under Territorial Consolidation, to deal with cross-sector criminal and rebellious activity and the problem of jurisdictional conflicts, the Tarkin Doctrine called for the retooling of the sector armies' areas of operations to create Oversectors, proposing they be tailored to control unstable galactic hot spots and be assigned greater forces than usual in an attempt to root out rebellious activity before it could take hold. Each Oversector, capable of crossing traditional sector boundaries, would be controlled by a single official who answered directly to Palpatine.Imperial Sourcebook
Under Rapid Communication, the Tarkin Doctrine also called for the cannibalization of the HoloNet and its restriction to the Imperial Navy, as well as the overall Imperial Military, in order to deny communication to insurgents and to more effectively coordinate Sector Groups. According to Tarkin, this was because the HoloNet, allowing face-to-face communication across thousands of light-years, was far too valuable to let the public have free access. Under this method, each sector flagship would receive its own transceiver and remain in direct contact with Oversector command, while Oversector command would maintain a direct link with Imperial High Command on Coruscant. Another reason for this implementation was to ensure that far-flung Imperial sectors could no longer run wild from a lack of discipline by making sure central authority watched their every move.
Finally, the cornerstone of the Doctrine was the concept of "rule through fear of force, rather than through force itself," also most infamously known as the Rule of Fear. Displays of power, most vitally through the use of terror-inspiring superweapons, would, Tarkin suggested, stifle dissent and rebellion. The presentation of a seemingly invincible weapon of ultimate power would play upon the fearfulness and awe of the citizenry to render all thought of assault against the Empire forgotten. It was therefore Tarkin's recommendation that the Empire invest strongly and continually in the innovation of ever more-powerful weapons of war.Star Wars: Force Commander The inspiration behind the creation of the rule of fear, and more specifically the research into superweapons development, was due to increased Rebel activity, and more specifically that the Rebels were now capable of not only fighting various Imperial troops, but also engaging in conventional naval warfare and destroying armored vehicles during a planetary invasion, meaning the Imperial military's superiority in equipment, training, and numbers would not be enough.
Emperor Palpatine was very impressed with the ideas, so much that all the suggestions were implemented with Tarkin promoted to the new rank of Grand Moff (making him the first Grand Moff). Tarkin's own sector army's theater, the Greater Seswenna, was dramatically expanded to become Oversector Outer, which encompassed most of the Outer Rim Territories. In addition, he was given command of four Sector Groups to crush insurgent activity, and was placed in command of the Death Star project, which fulfilled his philosophy of creating a weapon so powerful no planet would dare countenance resistance. According to the Tarkin Doctrine, once the Death Star was active, no one would dare act against the Empire. Terror at the prospect of planetary annihilation would ensure compliance and order.Death Star The Tarkin Doctrine was also later included in the Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide, which was ironically published to the Imperial Military commanders shortly before a cornerstone of the Tarkin Doctrine, the First Death Star, along with Tarkin himself, was destroyed at Yavin 4.
The Empire was ultimately unsuccessful in instilling the fear necessary to keep the galaxy in line. Palpatine increasingly changed Tarkin's original words to his own meaning, "Rule through fear instead of through idealistic government agencies." Consequently, with the Death Star fully operational in 0 BBY, he dissolved the Imperial Senate with the battle station to be the principal source of Imperial control in the Outer Rim. However, the Death Star produced the opposite of its intended result—instead of cowering under the threat of such a weapon, the people viewed its victims (particularly the unarmed planet Alderaan) as martyrs and rallied to the Rebellion's cause, especially after the Death Star's destruction at the Battle of Yavin. Further Imperial attempts to enact the doctrine with projects like the Tarkin, a stripped-down superlaser named in honor of the martyred Grand Moff, and the even larger Second Death Star, met with destruction in concerted Rebel strikes. The Empire was thus left in the same strategic conundrum the Tarkin Doctrine had been formulated to correct, and throughout the Galactic Civil War the Imperial Navy was never able to bring enough ships to bear to properly police the Outer Rim.
Aside from the flaws relating to the Rule of Fear, there were also some flaws encountered in the implementation of the other two principles. According to the ace Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles, a flaw in the first principle was a Grand Moff's jurisdiction crossing sector borders; accordingly, the Rebels changed their strategy by staging raids at the border of an oversector and then drawing two Grand Moffs into a turf war (which was ironically the reason he formed the first rule in the first place). Likewise, the smuggler-turned-Rebel General Han Solo mentioned that a week after the implementation of the Tarkin Doctrine, bootleg transceivers could be bought from any hustler on Nar Shaddaa, thus defeating the intended purpose of the second principle.
==Behind the scenes==
The full text of Imperial Communiqué #001044.92v first appeared in the Imperial Sourcebook. It appears again in the Death Star Technical Companion, with different wording from the Imperial Sourcebook version while retaining much of the same meaning. The Death Star Owner's Technical Manual shows yet another, significantly shorter, version of this communiqué.
==Appearances==
*Death Star 
*Empire 8
*Star Wars: Force Commander (Game manual)
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*Star Wars: Rebellion 
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*Galaxy of Fear: Planet Plague 
*Dark Apprentice 
===Non-canon appearances===
*Death Star Designer
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Imperial Communiques