Historically, 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,...

Declaring War directly challenges the 200-year-old belief that the Congress can and should declare war. By offering a detailed analysis of the declarations of 1812, 1898, and the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the book demonstrates the extent of the organizational and moral incapacity of the Congress to declare war. This book invokes Carl von Clausewitz's dictum that "war is policy" to explain why declarations of war are an integral part of war and proposes two possible remedies a constitutional amendment or, alternatively, a significant reorganization of Congress. It offers a comprehensive...