Influence Of Congress In Douglas Kriner's After The Rubicon

In his book, After the Rubicon: Congress, Presidents, and the Politics of Waging War, author Douglas Kriner delves into the murky concept of congressional influence in the arena of the United States’ increasingly executive-driven military engagements. Kriner analyzes the ways, both formal and informal, that Congress exercises affect over presidential actions in the international sphere. The publication addresses the regularity with which Congress seeks to influence presidential conduct of major military affairs by engaging in the policymaking process. Additionally, Kriner parses the significance of congressional influence to military action when opposition arises from the president’s party as well as the role of influence when the opposition party supports the president in the middle of an inherited war. Kriner accepts the expansion of executive power since the imperialistic eras of Johnson and Nixon as a given, however, his book aims to illuminate the ways in which Congress shapes the decisions made by the commander-in-chief even when lacking legal recourse to …show more content…
However, Kriner’s book intentionally shies away from examining the extent to which the executive branch has commandeered Congress’s power to declare war and effectively made it an executive decision, although the author acknowledges the subversion several times in his publication. If we are to accept that Congress has conceded the power of war to the executive branch, then Kriner at the very least offers consolation in that Congress remains the integral arbiter of approval in regard to wartime actions undertaken by the