Patrick Hulme is Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science at the Hamilton School. Hulme is a political scientist, with a focus on congressional-executive relations in U.S. Foreign Policy. He has previously served as a fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. His research and teaching interests include congressional-executive relations in U.S. foreign policy, constitutional law, deterrence theory, and the U.S.-China relationship.
His has been published by the American Political Science Review, International Studies Quarterly, The National Interest, The Diplomat, Lawfare, and other outlets.
Hulme is currently working on a book project, In the Shadow of Congress, that challenges the conventional view of an all-powerful commander-in-chief by showing that presidents act under significant political constraints imposed by Congress. Using a novel measure of congressional sentiment, the book reveals that even when presidents bypass formal approval, they rarely act without informal legislative backing—and consistently avoid full-scale wars without formal authorization. Ultimately, it argues that the “imperial presidency” is more performance than power, a strategic illusion meant to caution adversaries and hearten allies while masking domestic political limits.
“War and Responsibility,” American Political Science Review
“Power, Parity, and Place: Why Forgetting the Loss-of-Strength Gradient Misses the Relative Power Relationship” Journal of Conflict Resolution
“Alliance Reassurance and the Image of the Imperial Presidency.” Forthcoming at Security Studies.
“The Tyranny of Distance: Assessing and Explaining the Apparent Decline in U.S. Military Performance,” International Studies Quarterly 65(2): 542-50.
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