This essay discusses the constitutional aspects of the debate over the power to make war: How this debate has evolved in relation to the developing strategic context and what that means as we enter a period of wars on terrorism. How we might more carefully distinguish among, and more rigorously employ, the various legitimate forms of modal argument in this debate. How the terms of this debate will shift from ad bellum concerns about the initiation of warfare to in bellocontroversies arising from Congress's regulatory powers, and what a sensible doctrine might look like.

overlay image