The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. Congress hasn't formally done so since 1942. Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer and current senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, joins Matt to make sense of how that happened — and what it means now that the United States is at war with Iran. Brian has spent years arguing, across administrations of both parties, that executive branch war-making has drifted dangerously far from its constitutional moorings. Operation Epic Fury, he contends, is the most consequential test of that argument yet.
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Please share this episode using these links Audio:
https://pod.fo/e/41d13c YouTube:
https://youtu.be/TUYI1DqO-CA Further reading "What the Iran War Reveals About the War Powers Resolution and How Congress Can Act" by Tess Bridgeman & Brian Finucane |
Just Security:
https://www.justsecurity.org/137977/iran-hostilities-war-powers-restart-clock/ "On the State Department Memorandum 'Operation Epic Fury and International Law’" by Brian Finucane |
Just Security:
https://www.justsecurity.org/137097/state-department-epic-fury-international-law/ "An Unserious Justification for an Unnecessary War: Assessing the U.S. 'Article 51’ Letter to U.N. on Iran War" by Brian Finucane |
Just Security:
https://www.justsecurity.org/134290/us-article-51-letter-united-nations/ "Senate Votes to Take Up Measure to Force Trump to End Iran War" by Megan Mineiro |
The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/us/politics/senate-iran-war-authorization.html "Bending the Guardrails: U.S. War Powers after 7 October" by Brian Finucane | International Crisis Group:
https://www.crisisgroup.org/rpt/united-states/009-bending-guardrails-us-war-powers-after-7-october Support Secrets and Spies Become a “Friend of the Podcast” on Patreon for £3/$4:
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Music by Andrew R. Bird
USAF photo by Staff Sgt. Sandra Welch
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