The Clinton Wars: The Constitution, Congress and War Powers

Today the United States is fighting a
war
against terrorism, a military action whose definition will be a matter of controversy, particularly, if history is any guide, between Congress and the president. Throughout its history, the United States has grappled with the constitutional tension built into the conduct of its foreign affairs and the interpretation of the power to make war and use force abroad. Since the Cold War’s end, the United States has had to navigate through a period of strategic ambiguity, where American national security interests are much less certain. This volume examines the behaviour of the Clinton administration and Congress in dealing with the range of American military operations that occurred during the Clinton presidency. The author uses a case-study approach, laying out the foreign background and domestic political controversies in separate chapters on Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. Of special interest after the World Trade Center attacks is the chapter
Terrorism: Usama Bin Laden .