Checking the Costs of War - by Sarah E Kreps & Douglas L Kriner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A thorough reassessment of how domestic factors do and do not constrain the use of American military force abroad in the early twenty-first century.

More than two decades have passed since the September 11th terrorist attacks resuscitated debates about the "imperial presidency" within the United States. During that same time, the United States has fought costly and inconclusive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, pivoted to the Pacific to counter China, and pulled its gaze back to Europe and the Middle East in response to wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Moreover, new technologies and ways of funding and staffing wars have made the costs of war less visible to the public while polarization has increased and a new legal doctrine of presidential power has gained force.

Against this backdrop, Checking the Costs of War reassesses how domestic factors have both constrained and failed to constrain the use of military power across different contexts and over time. Richly empirical chapters explore the varying effects of different kinds of potential checks: legislative, public opinion, and bureaucratic. Collectively, chapters offer new insight into the prospects for war and peace today.

Review Quotes

"An illuminating, empirically grounded collection of essays by leading scholars of U.S. foreign policy decision making, Checking the Costs of War investigates the ability of domestic actors to constrain the war-making powers of the president. . .. The volume advances scholarship at the intersection of U.S. domestic politics and international relations--a literature that has been overshadowed by the vast body of work which employs theories of state behavior based on a unitary actor assumption or, in the case of the United States, claims an imperial presidency. For experts in U.S. foreign policy decision making, Checking the Costs of War is a must-read, as each chapter pushes the boundaries of current knowledge about how actors at home operate in an evolving domestic political context to shape the executive's actions abroad. . .. Taking this work seriously will make projects on current or future U.S. foreign policy not only richer but also arguably more accurate."
-- "Perspectives on Politics"

"Checking the Costs of War examines the factors influencing the ability of US leaders to engage in a range of fiscally and politically costly foreign policy and military actions in the absence of effective constraints on the part of groups such as the legislature, the federal bureaucracy, and/or the public."-- "Choice"

"Checking the Costs of War is an excellent volume by the leading scholars in the study of American institutions and foreign policy. By assessing the state of political division in the United States and the evolving nature of military conflict, the book provides an innovative framework with which to understand checks on presidential power after 9/11. The book is a must-read for scholars of American foreign policy."--Jon C.W. Pevehouse University of Wisconsin-Madison

"When presidents craft foreign policy and contemplate military action abroad, what domestic forces stand in their way? Quite a few, the essays in this important volume show. In different ways and under varying conditions, partisan opponents, intra-party factions, a recalcitrant bureaucracy, and a public weary of war periodically impede presidential ambitions to refashion international relations. Two presidencies--one domestic, the other foreign--may still exist. But the evidence and arguments herein leave the distinct impression that their differences are collapsing."--William Howell coauthor of "Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy"

About the Author

Sarah E. Kreps is the John L. Wetherill Professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University, where she is also an adjunct professor of law and the Director of the Cornell Tech Policy Institute. She is the author of five books, including, most recently, Social Media and International Relations. Douglas L. Kriner is the Clinton Rossiter Professor in American Institutions in the Department of Government at Cornell University. He is the author of five books, including, most recently, The Myth of the Imperial Presidency: How Public Opinion Checks the Unilateral Executive.