Browsing by Author "ZEMITI, Asma"

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    Who Decides when America Goes to War: The President or the Congress? An Endless Debate in Perspective
    (2011) ZEMITI, Asma
    The United States has been frequently involved in wars by presidential decision and without being officially declared by Congress, but scholars still deny the shift in the practice of war powers. The dissertation attempts to confirm this shift by showing that the division of war powers as the Founding Fathers intended it to be is no longer respected. The work aims to prove that since the Second World War Congress has deferred to the President whenever he deploys troops abroad relying on his title as Commander-in-Chief of the American Army. The choice of the subject is motivated by the significant number of American wars which were fought in different parts of the world mainly in Latin America, Asia, and more recently in the Middle East. As an illustration, “Presidentialists” defend the legality of presidential use of force even without congressional consent. By opposition “Congressionalists” refute such legality and accuse the President of usurping the war powers. Successive presidents have claimed more war powers. By renouncing its constitutional powers, Congress has failed to challenge presidential power usurpation. In this regard the reasons behind the shift in the practice of war powers are explored and the conditions under which Congress may exercise a war power check are unveiled. The silence of the Supreme Court has largely contributed to the development of this negative phenomenon. The inability of the third branch to intervene to restore the balance of war powers has created a serious conflict between the executive and legislative branches. The contribution of this research is based on the analysis and understanding of the reasons for the change in the practice of war powers for the President and possibly on the proposals that will restore balance in the practice of allowing Congress in parallel to verify the credentials of war.