National Conference on War Powers, Law, and Democracy

Who decides about war and peace? Congress? The President?
The Courts? The People?
What kind of national defense should the U.S. have? What type of military?

"Who Decides About War" confronted essential questions raised by the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. These questions are timely, as the process that brought the United States into those wars is widely recognized today as having been flawed at best, dishonest at worst.

Conference Video

If you would like to place an order for a DVD, please contact us

To view the full lineup of each of the conference panels and keynote talks, complete with descriptions of speakers and topics, click here: http://www.bringtheguardhome.org/publications/video_who_decides_about_war

User login

Georgetown Law School, October 2-3, 2009

We the People This engaging event gathered activists and academics, public officials and veterans, lawyers and military families. We used facilitated discussions, panel presentations, and workshops to accomplish two goals. First, to educate ourselves and each other about the issues involved, the state of the law, and alternatives. Second, to develop a statement of common principles leading to a more democratic, comprehensive, and durable national defense policy — one that will honor the Constitution and help keep the United States from entering into unnecessary wars.

For more information on the topics addressed at this conference, please see our background and the full schedule.

Please Contribute

Please contribute to help defray our organizing costs. Thank you very much!

Conveners

Convened by the national campaign to Bring the Guard Home! It's the Law and the Liberty Tree Foundation, with hosts National Lawyers Guild at Georgetown Law School, and in coordination with Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Democrats.com, and Institute for Policy Studies, as well as After Downing Street, CODEPINK, Iraq Veterans Against the War, National Coalition for Nonviolent Resistance, Peace Action USA, and Progressive Democrats of America.

Lead sponsors of "Guard Home" legislation include Rep. Fisher (VT) together with Sen. Davis (AK), Rep. Garballey (MA), Sen. Raskin (MD), Sen. Madaleno (MD), Rep. Hornstein (MN), Sen. Dibble (MN), Rep. Weed (NH), Rep. Begaye (NM), Sen. Cisneros (NM), Sen. Perkins (NY), Sen. Adams (NY), Rep. Shields (OR), Sen. Ferlo (PA), Rep. Cohen (PA), Rep. Segal (RI), Rep. Black (WI), Sen. Erpenbach (WI).

Background

This engaging event will bring together activists and academics, public officials and veterans, lawyers and military families. We will use facilitated discussions, panel presentations, and workshops to accomplish two goals. First, to educate ourselves and each other about the issues involved, the state of the law, and alternatives. Second, to develop a statement of common principles leading to a more democratic, comprehensive, and durable national defense policy — one that will honor the Constitution and help keep the United States from entering into unnecessary wars.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have revived and deepened longstanding questions about how and by whom war and peace should be decided under our Constitution and in faith with our democratic aspirations . . .

Read More...