Holding back the dogs of war

Sitting in Paris as the US’s first ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson reflected on how the new US government could avoid the errors of European “despots” who kept their people subjugated through war and debt.

Writing to James Madison, he observed that the US constitution had at least checked “the dog of war” by transferring “the power of letting him loose from the executive to the legislative body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay”.

At the same time, however, the US constitution designates the executive as the “commander in chief”, a power that presidents have invoked to use military force without congressional authorisation on more than 200 occasions. President Barack Obama relied on that power when he told both Congress and the people that he had the authority to order limited strikes on Syria without going to Congress.