Checking the Costs of War

Reviews / Votes

"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 * "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 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"