The Lost Art of Declaring War

Historically, it has been assumed that war is violence and declarations
of war are simply public announcements that serve to initiate combat.
Brien Hallett denies both assumptions and claims that war is policy, not
violence.
The Lost Art of Declaring War analyzes the crucial differences
between combat and war and convincingly argues that the power to "declare"
war is in actuality the power to compose a text, draft a document, write
a denunciation. Once written, the declaration then serves three functions:
to articulate the political purposes of the war, to guide and direct military
operations, and to establish the boundary between justified combat and
unjustified devastation.
Hallett sounds a clarion call urging the people and their representatives
to take up the challenge and write fully reasoned declarations of war.
Then, and only then, can a civilized nation like the United States lay
claim to being fully democratic, not only in peacetime, but in wartime
as well.
"Brien Hallett has fashioned an original, incisive, and powerful
argument for the proper standards for going to war. Tightly reasoned throughout
and well timed to address the conceptual confusion that now reigns."
-- Louis Fisher, author of Presidential War Power