The seminar will explore the separation of powers as it applies to the allocation of responsibility between Congress and the president concerning national security and foreign policy powers. Presidents and legislators have been warring over the question since the earliest days of the republic. The nation's political experience suggests that there are sound arguments to be made on both sides. It also suggests that the issues are unlikely to be finally resolved anytime soon. As participants in this seminar shall see, the debate between President Bush and Congress concerning the war in Iraq is but a modern re-setting of an argument that prompted a spirited exchange on the war powers between James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in 1793. Indeed, it may be argued that there is very little to this debate that was not more or less fully anticipated by those two worthies four years after the Constitution was ratified. Through a series of focused historical readings, the seminar will begin by examining the foundations of the Framers' thought and some of the controversies that exhibit the founding principles at work during the early days of the Republic. Participants will go on from there to examine selected executive-congressional debates as they arose during later military conflicts, especially the Civil War, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the current conflict in the Mideast. The seminar will meet formally for three 90-minute sessions on four days of each week. Each of these sessions will be devoted to a particular set of readings and each of the participants will have a one-on-one session with Professor Uhlmann to discuss the best ways in which the lessons of the seminar might be converted to his or her particular classroom environment. Because the seminar takes place in Washington and devotes a great deal of time to the Founders' thoughts, it would be remiss if it did not take advantage of the knowledge of Pamela Scott, a noted Washington architectural historian, who will share ways in which the art and architecture of Washington reflects the principles of the American regime. The greater part of one day during each week, she will lead specially arranged tours, including Mount Vernon.

Thomas Jefferson is best known as the author of the American Declaration of Independence. Beginning with the imperial crisis that led to the separation and union of 13 British colonies in North America, this course will focus on Jefferson's political thought and career in order to gain a broad perspective on the founding of the United States and its early history. Professors Peter Onuf and Frank Cogliano will emphasize the geopolitical context of the revolutionaries' bold efforts to establish republican governments and federal union. Jefferson and his patriot colleagues were acutely aware of the world historical significance of their revolution and therefore profoundly anxious about its ultimate outcome and legacy. By exploring the rich canon of his writings participants will seek to understand better what the Revolution meant for Jefferson and Jefferson meant for the Revolution. Major themes will include federalism, foreign policy, constitutionalism and party politics, and race and slavery.

Professor Gordon Wood investigates George Washington's contributions to the creation of the American republic. The bicentennial of his death in 1999 sparked a reassessment of this extraordinary man and his times. He was commander in chief of the revolutionary army, a leader in the formation of the Constitution of 1787, and the first president of the new United States. Despite these great accomplishments, he remains strangely distant and inaccessible to us in the early 21st century. This brief but intensive course helps explain the sources and meaning of Washington's greatness.