The War Powers Resolution: the Congressional Role over the Use of Military Force

This study addresses the Congressional role over the use of military force in the context of the 1973 War Powers Resolution in two separate cases: the 1983 Multinational Peacekeeping Force in Beirut; the 1991 Persian Gulf War with Iraq. The objective is to draw on these case studies to assess whether and how the Resolution has outlived its usefulness. In other words, after thirty years of debate and controversy is the War Powers Resolution still an effective and appropriate method for Congress to assert its role over the use of military force?