In the latest episode of Always at War, Courtney and Alex sit down with Tori Bateman, the Quincy Institute's Director of Advocacy, to talk about her work trying to end Washington's addiction to endless war.

Tori splits her time between two audiences that need almost opposite treatment. Grassroots constituents already know what they want: fewer wars and lower costs for Americans. Capitol Hill staffers are buried in acronyms and process fights and need to be pulled back to the bigger question of whether U.S. grand strategy is even working. Her job is translating between the two. Her two-person team turns dense research and reporting into something a member of Congress can act on and something a constituent can call about.

We get into the machine she's up against — the military-industrial complex — and how they've made it very difficult for members of Congress to vote against war spending in their backyards. We trace why the War Powers Resolution, a Nixon-era tool meant to let Congress pull troops back from unauthorized wars, has produced more than twenty votes over the past year without ending a single conflict. Most have failed outright, and the one that passed was dismissed by the administration as non-binding. Tori walks us through why political timing, not conviction, often decides how war powers votes shake out.

We also get into the outsized power of a single phone call. Tori describes a Hill staffer who had fifty constituents ask about Section 219, the U.S.-Israel Defense Cooperation Initiative buried inside the NDAA, before he even knew what it was — proof that constituents have more power than most people assume.

The episode closes on the show's classic question: why is the United States always at war? Tori's answer sounds right to me: "It's easier to break stuff than it is to build things."

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Why is America always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan as they expose the monied interests, outdated ideologies, and entrenched powers that have driven the U.S. to wage nearly 400 wars and interventions.

They’ll be joined by journalists, advocates, and experts to uncover who profits from America’s endless conflicts, and to imagine how we can build a better, more peaceful U.S. foreign policy.

Learn more about the Quincy Institute: quincyinst.org
Contact the show: alwaysatwar@quincyinst.org

Show art by Justin Hantz

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