About

This project is intended for use by scholars, policymakers, journalists, and others who seek to better understand the balance of powers between the branches with respect to how U.S. armed forces are used abroad. It provides new data and analysis that can help elucidate historical and current practice under the War Powers Resolution (WPR) and lay the foundation for potential reform.

Specifically, the project provides a living resource on the war powers reporting practice of every President since the WPR was enacted in 1973. It creates a searchable database of all unclassified 48-hour reports submitted to Congress, which are required when Presidents introduce forces into hostilities or imminent hostilities, deploy combat-equipped forces, or substantially enlarge a combat-equipped contingent. The reports have been analyzed to provide substantive information on each report and the database will be regularly updated. This site also contains expert analysis of key findings from the data and interactive graphic illustrations of the data.

The project’s lead researcher and author is Dr. Tess Bridgeman, a senior fellow and visiting scholar at the Reiss Center on Law and Security and a former senior executive branch lawyer.

How to Use this Website

The website has three major components:

1. Interactive data illustrations. The three interactive graphics on the main page of this site illustrate major research findings and provide an entry point to explore the full data set.
2. Searchable database. The database contains coding and analysis of the entire set of unclassified 48-hour reports. You can use it to:
   • Filter reports to see key information, such as the stated mission or purpose of the reported activity, the location of deployment or introduction of armed forces, the statutory WPR trigger for reporting, the legal authority cited for the activity, the type of military activity reported, and other categories;
   • View a summary page for each 48-hour report, which highlights key categories of data and excerpts from the reports; and
   • Access the original text of every 48-hour report. You can also download the full underlying data set as a CSV file.
3. Methodology and Analysis. In the navigation menu you will find links to the project methodology and an analysis of key findings.
   • The methodology section explains how the data were collected and analyzed.
   • The key findings and analysis section provides an overview and initial findings of the study. It also briefly examines a separate data set of unreported incidents, which were analyzed according to the same coding criteria as WPR-reported activity (to the extent possible). These sections are also available in a downloadable PDF format.

Engage With Us!

The War Powers Resolution Reporting Project is a living resource that aims to be useful to a wide range of communities. We encourage you to download and employ our research in your own work. Please provide the following citation if you do:

“War Powers Resolution Reporting Project,” Reiss Center on Law and Security, https://warpowers.lawandsecurity.org.

We are constantly seeking to improve this resource. We welcome your comments and suggestions, which may be directed to warpowers@lawandsecurity.org.

If you like what you see here and wish to support our work, please consider making a donation to the Reiss Center. Your generosity enables us to provide resources such as this project at no charge.

Project Team

Author and Lead Researcher

Dr. Tess Bridgeman is Senior Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Reiss Center on Law and Security, and Co-Editor-in-Chief at Just Security. She served as Special Assistant to President Obama, Associate Counsel to the President, and Deputy Legal Advisor to the National Security Council. She previously served in the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser, where she was Special Assistant to the Legal Adviser, and prior to that role, Attorney Adviser in the Office of Political-Military Affairs. Bridgeman clerked for Judge Thomas L. Ambro of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, has worked at the World Bank Inspection Panel, and served at the Senate Judiciary Committee. She has a D.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes Scholar; a J.D. from NYU School of Law, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, which she attended as a Root-Tilden-Kern and Institute for International Law and Justice Scholar; and a B.A. from Stanford University.

Student Scholar Researchers

Erica Ma is a 2020 graduate of NYU School of Law, where she was a 2018-19 Reiss Center Student Scholar, Managing Editor for the New York University Law Review, and a Furman Academic Scholar. Previously, she worked at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C.

Ariana Navarro Rowberry is a 2020 graduate of NYU School of Law, where she was a 2018-19 Reiss Center Student Scholar and the President of the National Security Law Society. In Fall 2019 she was part of the Legislative and Regulatory Policy Clinic where she served as a legal extern on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Majority staff. Previously, she worked at the Middle East and North Africa Directorate of the National Security Council.

Executive Director

Rachel Goldbrenner is the Executive Director of the Reiss Center on Law and Security and an Adjunct Professor of Law at NYU School of Law. An international lawyer and policy practitioner, she previously served in senior policy roles at the National Security Council, U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and State Department. Before entering government, she practiced in the international litigation and arbitration group of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York. She has worked as a foreign policy and national security analyst at several U.S.-based think-tanks. She is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has been a Fellow of the Truman National Security Project and a Fulbright Scholar to the Netherlands. Goldbrenner has a J.D. from NYU School of Law and a B.A. from UC Berkeley.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Sarvenaz Bakhtiar, the Reiss Center’s former Director of Operations and Strategic Development, and Alex Potcovaru, our former Program Associate, for their indispensable support. A number of Reiss Center Student Scholars have provided excellent additional research assistance, including Julia Brooks, Mari Dugas, Peter Machtiger and Nicholas Tonckens. Beverly Tan’s communications skills were invaluable. We also owe our profound gratitude to Brian Finucane, Chris Fonzone, Professor Ryan Goodman, Professor Rebecca Ingber, Dean Trevor Morrison, and Stephen Pomper for their thoughtful and expert feedback.

Award-winning website design and report layout by Objectively.

Version Notes

The War Powers Resolution Reporting Project is a living database. We aim to make corrections, improvements, and additions when warranted, and welcome feedback to that end. Any significant changes are noted in the following “version notes,” which reflect updates made to the data over time.

March 2025

New data fields added:

• “Reporting as it relates to termination clock” and details (website display and in downloadable csv)
• Related periodic reports (website display and in downloadable csv)
• “Classified Annex Reported?” (in downloadable csv)
• “Constitutional Caveat” and details (in downloadable csv)

Added periodic report database (available as downloadable CSV)

Removed erroneously included “related” reports associated with 7/9/93 Macedonia UNPROFOR report

Methodology was updated to reflect the addition of the new periodic reports database and new data fields in the 48-hour reports database