War Powers
War: A Tool For Politicians to Centralize Power
War is a vehicle for federal power. Wars and threats of war create opportunities for the federal government to centralize military, economic, and political authority. This is clearly laid out in Walter Karp’s absorbing book The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars...
War Presidents to the Left; War Presidents to the Right.
Who was the last American Presidential candidate to campaign on a pro-war platform? No major party candidate, in my lifetime, explicitly campaigned to lead the military into an offensive war. Interventionists from the left and right always argue that the wars of the...
War Abroad Means More Government at Home
On a superficial level, it would seem America’s wars only affect people and places outside the country’s borders – in the land where the war is waged. However, this is a misguided understanding ignoring the downstream effects of war. In truth, the warfare state and...
Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates
Famously, President Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address articulated his philosophical manifesto: “Peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none.” These basic maxims were stressed repeatedly by Jefferson, who cherished a...