Quote from PocketChange:
Except our congress has already delegated its powers to declare war by ratifying numerous treaties aka UN and a plethora of other tangled webs of legal speak.
Only Five wars have been declared under the Constitution: the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II
At the end of WW II congress passed the United Nations Participation Act of 1945. This act essentially set precedence with the United States joining the newly created United Nations and related bodies of the United Nations.
The UN Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries. While other organizations of the United Nations can only make 'recommendations' to member governments, the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions that member governments have agreed to carry out, under the terms of Charter Article 25. The decisions of the Council are known as United Nations Security Council resolutions.
The Security Council is made up of 15 member states, consisting of 5 permanent membersâChina, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United Statesâand 10 non-permanent members, currently Azerbaijan, India, South Africa, Colombia, Morocco, Togo, Germany, Pakistan, Guatemala, and Portugal. The five permanent members hold veto power over substantive but not procedural resolutions allowing a permanent member to block adoption but not to block the debate of a resolution unacceptable to it.
Congress can declare war but the declaration can be made void by veto by any of China, France, Russia, or United Kingdom.