President Joe Biden claimed during his July 24 address that he is “the first president this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.”

Verdict: Unsubstantiated

The United States has not been formally at war since 1945. The U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021 and has troops in combat deployments across several countries. The Biden administration says they are not at war, though two experts disagreed.

Fact Check:

Biden claimed during his July 24 address that the U.S. was not at war for the first time in the 21st century. (RELATED: No, Trump Did Not Say Bullet From Rally Shooting Took His ‘Entire Ear Off’)

This claim is unsubstantiated. The U.S. has not formally been at war since 1945, when World War II ended, according to History.com. It has since withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2021, though the U.S. has troops deployed in Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Somalia and other countries, mostly in counter-terrorism roles, according to a December 2023 White House War Powers Act report.

In June, a U.S. airstrike reportedly killed a top Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader in Somalia, according to ABC News. The U.S. launched Operation Prosperity Guardian in December 2023 in response to missile and drone attacks from the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, against commercial shipping, according to the Pentagon.  have also targeted the Houthis with airstrikes, including on July 24.

July 24 U.S. Central Command Update

In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed two Iranian-backed Houthi missiles on launchers in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.

It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to U.S.,… pic.twitter.com/fUcNfdP8MM

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 24, 2024

The U.S. also helped Israel shoot down hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles on April 13, according to The Associated Press.

An administration official told Check Your Fact that the airstrikes against the Houthis “reflect the United States defending its interest and global security.”

“We don’t consider the United States at war with any countries. The [Houthi] airstrikes you mention below reflect the United States defending its interests and global security. During the previous administration, the Afghanistan War was ongoing,” the official said.

A National Security Council previously told Check Your Fact in January 2024 that “the Justice Department has set out a longstanding test for the President’s constitutional authority to direct the use of military force: there must be a significant national interest at stake, and the action must be below the threshold of ‘war’ in the constitutional sense.”

Brian Finucane, a senior adviser at Crisis Group, said the claim was not accurate in a July 25 tweet and linked to a recent report.

As we explain in a new @CrisisGroup report released today, this “not at war” claim is inaccurate.

The Biden administration has engaged in a number of Middle East conflicts after October 7th—just without congressional authorization.https://t.co/QCvcfZ7X8k https://t.co/im53UtyRGW

— Brian Finucane (@BCFinucane) July 25, 2024

“It has armed Israel and provided it political support at the same time as it has sent humanitarian relief to Gaza’s suffering civilian population and encouraged an end to hostilities. But Washington’s engagement has gone further; it has also included warfighting,” the report reads.

Finucane expanded on his tweet in an email to Check Your Fact, saying, “President Biden has been making similar statements since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.”

“‘War’ doesn’t have a single fixed definition and it is not quite clear what President Biden specifically means by the term. It seems more political sloganeering than a careful characterization of ongoing US military activities,” Finucane said.

He added:

“However the United States is very much engaged in a number of armed conflicts, including near daily shoot downs over the Red Sea and airstrikes on the Houthis in Yemen. And the United States is engaged in on-again, off-again fighting with Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria which has resulted in US casualties and three US fatalities from an attack in Jordan. Moreover, the US government’s legal position remains that the United States is still engaged in an armed conflict with al Qaeda and associated forces and therefore that the US may continue to detain prisoners at GTMO under the law of war. So if the US government’s position is really that the US isn’t at war, then it may need to release these detainees.”

“Prior to October 2023, I would have said President Biden deserves credit for winding down various elements of the war on terror. And while that is true, since October the US has engaged in new and renewed conflicts in the Middle East as a result of the Gaza war,” Finucane continued.

A defense official told Check Your Fact that “U.S. military service members around the globe work every day to deter conflict and protect our nation.”

“And that can sometimes entail operating in dangerous and hostile environments. So, while we do have forces serving in harm’s way, we are not a nation at war,” the defense official said.

Robert Greenway, the director of national security at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told Check Your Fact that Biden’s claim is “patently false.”

“We have the largest conflict in Europe since the Second World War that happened under his watch, an escalating conflict in the Middle East, which is a direct result [of his foreign policy] as that is not the Middle East that he inherited.

“Our troops are being shot at in Iraq and Syria in the last 48 hours and…off the coast Yemen and in the Red Sea, as well as commercial shipping, which has disrupted one of the world’s largest trade routes…We got increasing escalatory actions by China… in the Second Thomas Shoal,” Greenway said.

“I don’t know if the spirit of his message is accurate, either,” Greenway added.