The Lost Art of Declaring WarHistorically, it has been assumed that war is violence and declarations of war are simply public announcements that serve to initiate combat. Brien Hallett denies both assumptions and claims that war is policy, not violence. The Lost Art of Declaring War analyzes the crucial differences between combat and war and convincingly argues that the power to "declare" war is in actuality the power to compose a text, draft a document, write a denunciation. Once written, the declaration then serves three functions: to articulate the political purposes of the war, to guide and direct military operations, and to establish the boundary between justified combat and unjustified devastation. Hallett sounds a clarion call urging the people and their representatives to take up the challenge and write fully reasoned declarations of war. Then, and only then, can a civilized nation like the United States lay claim to being fully democratic, not only in peacetime, but in wartime as well. "Brien Hallett has fashioned an original, incisive, and powerful argument for the proper standards for going to war. Tightly reasoned throughout and well timed to address the conceptual confusion that now reigns." -- Louis Fisher, author of Presidential War Power |
From inside the book
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Page xi
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Contents
Something Else Is Needed | 3 |
Ignoring Democracy and the Constitution | 27 |
Changing Attitudes | 59 |
Declarations of War A Brief Historical Sketch | 61 |
War Perspective and Perversion | 96 |
Speculating on Solutions | 143 |
The Military the Public and Congress | 145 |
US Declarations of War | 169 |
179 | |
185 | |
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Common terms and phrases
ambiguity ancient armed conflict articulated atrocities attack authority Bynkershoek Clausewitz commander-in-chief commanders Committees of Correspondence Communist condition congressional declaration congressional war powers constitutional contest council council of war Cuba Cuban Cuban Democracy Act debate Declaration of Independence declaration of war delegation democracy denounced diplomatic draft declaration Eagleton enemy enmity example executive exists Federal Convention fetiale forces formal declaration fully reasoned declaration functional equivalent Government grand strategic analysis grievances Grotius Grotius's Helots hostilities Imperial informed initial jurists justice justify Kennedy king Korea laration means military missiles nations negotiations objective officer Parliament peace perversions political power to declare President purpose representative democracy Representatives resolution Second Continental Congress Senate sense seventeenth century situation smallest operational detail Soviet specificity Stat strategy tion Truman undeclared United unreasoned Vietnam Vietnam War violence of combat vote War Powers Resolution whereas