Opposing the Crusader State: Alternatives to Global Interventionism

by Robert Higgs (Editor), Carl P. Close (Editor)

Overview

Opposing the Crusader State: Alternatives to Global Interventionism, edited by Robert Higgs and Carl Close, examines the history of American noninterventionism and its relevance in today's world.

For more than a century U.S. foreign policy—whether conducted by Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives—has been based on the assumption that Americans' interests are served best by intervening abroad to secure open markets for U.S. exports, fight potential enemies far from American shores, or engage in democratic nation building. Before the twentieth century, however, a foreign policy of nonintervention was widely considered more desirable, and Washington’s and Jefferson's advice that the republic avoid foreign entanglements was largely heeded.

Arguing that interventionism is not an appropriate “default setting” for U.S. foreign policy, the book’s contributors clarify widespread misunderstandings about noninterventionism, question the wisdom of nation building, debate the validity of democratic-peace theory, and make the case for pursuing a peace strategy based on private-property rights and free trade.

"Readers will come away from this book with a richer understanding of the noninterventionist movements in U.S. history," write Higgs and Close in the book’s introduction. "Most important, perhaps, they will have a firmer understanding of why many classical liberals embrace the strengthening of commercial ties between all countries as a means of avoiding war."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598130133
Publisher:	Independent Institute
Publication date:	09/01/2007
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Robert Higgs is Retired Senior Fellow in Political Economy, Founding Editor and former Editor at Large of the Independent Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, the University of Economics, Prague, and George Mason University. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation. His many books include Crisis and Leviathan; Depression, War, and Cold War; After Leviathan; Delusions of Power; Neither Liberty Nor Safety; Resurgence of the Warfare State; Taking a Stand; and multiple edited collections.

Carl P. Close is a former Research Fellow and former Executive Editor for Acquisitions and Content at the Independent Institute and former Assistant Editor of The Independent Review. Starting in 1999 he wrote Independent's weekly email newsletter, The Lighthouse. He is also co-editor (with Robert Higgs) of Re-Thinking Green: Alternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy, The Challenge of Liberty: Classical Liberalism Today, and Opposing the Crusader State: Alternatives to Global Interventionism. Prior to joining Independent Institute, he worked in various capacities in the financial services industry.

Table of Contents

Introduction   Robert Higgs   Carl P. Close     ix
American Noninterventionism     1
Imperialism, Noninterventionism, and Revolution: Opponents of the Modern American Empire   Joseph R. Stromberg     3
New Deal Nemesis: The "Old Right" Jeffersonians   Sheldon Richman     43
On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doeneke's Storm on the Horizon   Ralph Raico     97
The Republican Road Not Taken: The Foreign Policy Vision of Robert A. Taft   Michael T. Hayes     105
The Case Against Nation Building     125
The Prospects for Democracy in High-Violence Societies   James L. Payne     127
Does Nation Building Work?   James L. Payne     139
Did The United States Create Democracy in Germany?   James L. Payne     153
A Matter of Small Consequence: U. S. Foreign Policy and the Tragedy of East Timor   Jerry K. Sweeney     169
Debating the Democratic Peace     183
Democracy and War   Ted Galen Carpenter     185
Democracy and War: Reply   R. J. Rummel     193
Democracy and War: Rejoinder   Ted Galen Carpenter     201
Stealing and Killing: A Property-Rights Theory of Mass Murder   Stephen W. Carson     203
Free Trade as a Peace Strategy     221
Commerce, Markets, and Peace: Richard Cobden's Enduring Lessons   Edward P. Stringham     223
The Diffusion of Prosperity and Peace by Globalization   Erich Weede     237
About the Editors and Contributors     263
Index     267

Editorial Reviews

“If you want to know why making the world safe for democracy is both foolhardy and impossible, read Opposing the Crusader State. Here in a nutshell is the best scholarship available on how our warrior governments went wrong and why their non-defensive wars have diminished, rather than enhanced, our freedoms.”— JUDGE ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO, Senior Judicial Analyst, Fox News Channel; author, The Constitution in Exile

“Opposing the Crusader State deserves to be widely read and discussed. The issues are vital, critical; the timing perfect; the editors knowledgeable and selective; the writers expert, thoughtful and articulate.”— AMBASSADOR EDWARD L. PECK, former Chief of Mission in Iraq

“Opposing the Crusader State offers insight into the long and often ignored American political tradition of opposing foreign interventions. Once again, we are learning the hard way the foolishness of nation building beyond our borders, interests, and knowledge. This important book should be required reading for our many would be global democracy spreaders.”— HARVEY M. SAPOLSKY, Professor of Public Policy and Organization and former Director, Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

“For those disillusioned by the American intervention in Iraq, the insightful book Opposing the Crusader State shows how the U.S. can protect its interests by embracing a more humble foreign policy.”— LAWRENCE J. KORB, former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Defense

“In Opposing the Crusader State, Higgs and Close (both, Independent Institute) focus on U.S. foreign policy alternatives to global intervention. They argue that until the 20th century, U.S. foreign policy pursued economic expansion without military intervention in foreign countries. Yet starting with the Spanish American War, the U.S. became a crusader state, using military might in ways that compromised the nation’s founding principles at high economic cost. . . . The value of this book is twofold: first, it challenges the use of military intervention as the primary tool to promote and protect U.S. interests; second, it raises critical questions of war and peace while offering alternatives to military intervention. Recommended.”— CHOICE

From the Publisher