Congressional Capitulation: War Power and the United States Congress

Abstract

The question of who should utilize the war power has been debated from the founding of the republic and the core issues while couched in different terms, and while war has become much more technologically advanced, remain the same. The fundamental question is one of what the President can do, and what Congress should do. I attempt to primarily address the question of what Congress should do with regard to the war powers rather than what the President can do because the scope of presidential war powers has been extensively researched and written about in the scholarly literature. Instead I address what from an institutional structure and policy perspective Congress ought to do with relation to the war powers and their execution.