The Lawfare Podcast Lawfare Archive: Waxman and Ramsey on Delegating War Power
Nov 9, 2025
Matthew Waxman, a national security scholar and law professor at Columbia, joins Michael Ramsey, a historian of constitutional war powers from the University of San Diego. They dive into the constitutional nuances of war power delegations, emphasizing Congress's authority over the president's military initiation power. Key discussions include the evolution of war powers from the Founding era to today, highlighting early authorizations and the implications of broad AUMFs post-Cold War. Their insights shed light on the ongoing tension between legislative intent and executive authority.
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Delegation, Not Just Presidential Unilateralism
- Contemporary debate often misses that the key constitutional question is Congress's authority to delegate war initiation power to the president.
- Historical practice and modern AUMFs make delegation the central issue, not presidential unilateralism.
Two Competing Historical Intuitions
- Two competing intuitions exist: war power is either exceptionally delegable or uniquely non-delegable.
- The historical record supports neither conclusively and shows modern broad delegation emerges mid-20th century.
Founders Debated Allocation Of War Power
- At the Constitutional Convention delegates debated giving war power and ultimately changed 'make war' to 'declare war.'
- Delegates voiced concern that the president should not have unilateral war-initiation power, but they did not address delegation by Congress.