Editing Jack Ryan (character) (section)

====''[[Executive Orders]]'' (July 01, 1996)====
The reluctant yet determined Ryan administration emerges as Ryan slowly rebuilds the government. He is faced with Kealty's political trickery, as the former vice president disputes his legitimacy as the nation's chief executive by publicly stating that he never actually resigned, when in fact a member of his staff had secretly taken the resignation letter from the office of the now-dead [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] and destroyed it. Initially the lone voice of opposition to Ryan's policies on live television, he later enlists disaffected CIA intelligence officials (affected by the [[reduction in force]] at the agency in favor of more field operatives) to procure classified information on Ryan from his time in the CIA. He then suborns [[NBC]] news anchor and fellow Ryan critic Tom Donner into ambushing him with questions about his CIA career in a televised interview. Donner's colleague John Plumber later realizes his mistake and publicly apologizes to President Ryan, while Kealty's challenge eventually fails in court.

Along the way, Ryan also has to deal with the dictator of the new United Islamic Republic (a coalition of [[Iran]] and [[Iraq]]), the [[Ayatollah]] Mahmoud Haji Daryaei. The ayatollah regards him as a weakling and seizes the opportunity to stage a multi-pronged attack on the country: a biological attack using a weaponized strain of the [[Ebola virus]], a kidnapping attempt on his youngest daughter Katie, and an assassination attempt on himself through an Iranian [[sleeper agent]] disguised as a [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] bodyguard; with the U.S. overwhelmed by a multitude of crises, he believes that he can invade [[Saudi Arabia]] with little military opposition from the U.S. While the attempt on Katie was swiftly averted by the FBI and the Secret Service, the Ebola epidemic causes Ryan to declare martial law and enforce a travel ban that becomes instrumental in killing the virus, since it cannot survive in the American environment due to its fragile nature. He later deploys what is left of the American military to assist Saudi and Kuwaiti forces in repelling the UIR military, which also becomes successful. The would-be assassin is later arrested on the spot by the FBI after attempting to kill President Ryan inside the [[Oval Office]].

=====Ryan Doctrine=====
At the end of ''Executive Orders'', Ryan, in the tradition of Presidents [[Monroe Doctrine|Monroe]], [[Truman Doctrine|Truman]], [[Carter Doctrine|Carter]] and [[Reagan Doctrine|Reagan]], issues a [[foreign policy doctrine]] which largely defines his administration's international perspective. The Ryan Doctrine states that the U.S. will no longer tolerate attacks on "our territory, our possessions, or our citizens," and will hold whoever orders such attacks accountable.

This statement comes soon after the Ebola attack on the U.S. ordered by Daryaei. Ryan announces the new doctrine on television, momentarily cutting away to show Daryaei and his UIR advisors being incinerated by laser-guided bombs launched from two [[Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk|F-117]]s, on Ryan's orders. Therefore, the Ryan doctrine supersedes the [[Executive order (United States)|executive order]] put in place by President [[Gerald Ford|Ford]], which forbids the assassination of foreign heads of state. Ryan, however, believes it is a more ethical alternative than [[total war]], since it punishes the person responsible for the attack instead of the people he rules.

Within the books, the Ryan doctrine is not officially invoked after Daryaei's death (although Ryan threatens to use it on the Chinese leadership in ''The Bear and the Dragon'', should anything happen to American citizens living in China as a consequence of the Siberian War).