After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Describe the ebb and flow of legislative-executive relations over foreign policy matters since World War II.
   
• Explain four constraints on congressional action.
   
• Summarize the institutional factors that determine the extent to which Congress engages in foreign policy.
   
• Identify the ways in which Congress has exercised authority regarding war powers and the use of force.
   
• Discuss Congress’s power of the purse and the two key areas of foreign policy in which it comes into play.