Opposing the Crusader State Alternatives to Global Interventionism

by Higgs, Robert; Close, Carl P.

• ISBN13: 9781598130133
• ISBN10: 1598130137
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-01
• Publisher: Independent Institute

Summary

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 American's interests are served best by intervening abroad to secure open markets for U.S. exports, fight potential enemies fat 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. 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. Arguing that interventionism is not an appropriate "default setting" for U.S. foreign policy, the book's contributors clarify widespread misunderstanding 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." Book jacket.

Author Biography

Robert Higgs is a senior fellow in political economy for the Independent Institute and an editor of The Independent Review. He has edited numerous scolarly volumes and is the author of several books, including Against Leviathan; Crisis and Leviathan; Depression, War, and Cold War; and Resurgence of the Warfare State. His popular articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications, and he has appeared on ABC, CNBC, C-SPAN, NBC, and NPR. Carl P. Close is the academic affairs director for the Independent Institute and an assistant editor of The Independent Review. He is the coeditor of The Challenge of Liberty and Re-Thinking Green and has contributed to The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
American Noninterventionism	p. 1
Imperialism, Noninterventionism, and Revolution: Opponents of the Modern American Empire	p. 3
New Deal Nemesis: The "Old Right" Jeffersonians	p. 43
On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doeneke's Storm on the Horizon	p. 97
The Republican Road Not Taken: The Foreign Policy Vision of Robert A. Taft	p. 105
The Case Against Nation Building	p. 125
The Prospects for Democracy in High-Violence Societies	p. 127
Does Nation Building Work?	p. 139
Did The United States Create Democracy in Germany?	p. 153
A Matter of Small Consequence: U. S. Foreign Policy and the Tragedy of East Timor	p. 169
Debating the Democratic Peace	p. 183
Democracy and War	p. 185
Democracy and War: Reply	p. 193
Democracy and War: Rejoinder	p. 201
Stealing and Killing: A Property-Rights Theory of Mass Murder	p. 203
Free Trade as a Peace Strategy	p. 221
Commerce, Markets, and Peace: Richard Cobden's Enduring Lessons	p. 223
The Diffusion of Prosperity and Peace by Globalization	p. 237
About the Editors and Contributors	p. 263
Index	p. 267
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