Maintaining Checks and Balances in a New Age of Conflict

This paper addresses how US-China rivalry is shaping the primary institutions of American constitutional governance. It asks whether new geopolitical demands have eroded traditional checks and balances between Congress, the President, and the courts. History teaches that global conflict can alter the balance of constitutional powers, leading at times to executive overreach, congressional abetment or acquiescence, and judicial deference. Are these structural patterns being reproduced today? How can politicians, policymakers, and governments lawyers ensure that healthy interbranch dynamics persist through a new age of conflict?