Harold Hongju Koh — The National Security Constitution in the Twenty-First Century

Watch author Harold Hongju Koh's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

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Since the beginning of the American Republic, a package of norms has evolved in the U.S. Constitution to protect the operation of checks and balances in national security policy. This “National Security Constitution” promotes shared powers and balanced institutional participation in foreign policymaking. Today it is under attack from a competing claim of executive unilateralism generated by recurrent patterns of presidential activism, congressional passivity, and judicial tolerance. This dynamic has pushed presidents of both parties to press the limits of law in foreign affairs.

In his award-winning National Security Constitution (1990), Harold Hongju Koh traced the evolution of this constitutional struggle across America’s history. This new book, based on the earlier volume but with roughly 70 percent new material, brings the story to the present, placing recent events into constitutional perspective. Reviewing the presidencies of the twenty-first century, he explains why modern national security threats have given presidents of both parties incentives to monopolize foreign policy decision-making, Congress incentives to defer, and the courts reasons to rubber-stamp. Koh suggests both a workable strategy and crucial prescriptions to restore the balance of our constitutional order in addressing modern global crises.

Harvard’s Laurence Tribe calls The National Security Constitution in the Twenty-First Century “quite simply the best book ever written about its daunting subject. … Written with the perspective that only experience can nurture, the wisdom that no amount of experience can ensure, and the brilliance that alone can bring wisdom and experience into alignment, Koh’s masterpiece will be required reading long after the dust has settled on the many crises that grip our attention as the first third of the twenty-first century comes to an end.”

Harold Hongju Koh is Sterling Professor of International Law and former dean at Yale Law School, and former State Department Legal Adviser and Assistant Secretary of Human Rights. He has received eighteen honorary degrees, more than thirty human rights awards, and prizes from Columbia Law School, Duke Law School, and the American Bar Association for his lifetime achievements in international law. He is the author of nine books, including The National Security Constitution.

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Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online.