# Multimedia 

Multimedia 

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- [Podcasts](/podcasts)
- [Cato Video](/multimedia/cato-video)
- [Video Series](/search/category/video-series)
- [Events](/multimedia/events)

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Video 

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Cato Video • December 16, 2019 

# When Should the United States Use Military Force? 

What principles should guide the decisions to intervene militarily? What factors should weigh most heavily? Cato’s Emma Ashford, CSIS’s Melanie Marlowe, and Brookings’s Tamara Wittes discuss whether the U.S. is too quick to use force in other countries.

From [Project Sphere](https://projectsphere.org).

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

[![Emma Ashford New](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-07/emma-ashford-new.jpg?itok=IOYhTao_)](/people/emma-ashford) 

##### [Emma Ashford](/people/emma-ashford)

Senior Fellow, Stimson Center

[ 

](https://twitter.com/EmmaMAshford) 

##### Melanie Marlowe 

Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies

##### Tamara Cofman Wittes 

Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution