The President's Authority over Foreign Affairs: An Executive Branch Perspective

The branch's perspective on the constitutional law of foreign affairs is one approach for working out the implications of the text, structure, and history of the Constitution as it bears on foreign affairs. This perspective accords the President primary responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy and the preservation of national security, without denying the Congress very broad powers relating to foreign affairs and national security. The coherence of the interpretation of Constitutional authority over foreign affairs, and the respect it embodies for the presidency, for Congress, and for the constitutional system of separated but interlocking powers, support the argument that the best reading of the Constitution regarding foreign affairs is the executive primacy position.