 |
 |
Store: An Independent Institute Book
3 Figures • 1 Tables
© 2007 |
| | | |
OPPOSING THE CRUSADER STATE
Alternatives to Global Interventionism
Edited by
Carl P. Close, Robert Higgs
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.
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 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.”
Detailed Summary |
| |
|
Contributors
Joseph R. Stromberg, Sheldon Richman, Ralph Raico, Michael T. Hayes, James L. Payne, Jerry K. Sweeney, Ted Galen Carpenter, R. J. Rummel, Stephen W. Carson, Edward P. Stringham, Erich Weede Table of Contents Praise for Opposing the Crusader State “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
“Opposing the Crusader State is a zesty debunking of some of the most dangerous foreign policy frauds of our era.”
—JAMES BOVARD, author, Terrorism and Tyranny and Lost Rights
“Can America effectively export Democracy through military intervention? Opposing the Crusader State is a thought-provoking and highly readable book that will help you shape your answer to this question, outlining a disappointing history of America’s past military forays into democracy building, heated discussions of the role of democracy and property rights in mitigating warfare, and a policy of reducing foreign intervention and promoting world-wide free trade.”
—PRICE V. FISHBACK, Frank and Clara Kramer Professor of Economics, University of Arizona
“Contemporary public discourse on U.S. foreign policy has become largely a battle of sound bites, with even our government’s highest ranking offi cials addressing complex security and diplomatic matters in slogans and simplistic propositions. 24-7 news coverage only exacerbates this dumbing-down of foreign policy. Lost in all this is any deep understanding of either the principles of non-intervention (a policy that served America so well for so long) or of the aggressively interventionist foreign policy that has become the hallmark of recent administrations (both Republican and Democratic). Opposing the Crusader State pulls together in one volume enough substantive and timely writings on why current American foreign policy is so disjointed, costly, and self-destructive as to make even the most die-hard interventionists think twice before applauding Washington’s next foreign invasion or nation-building folly.”
—BOB BARR, former U.S. Congressman and senior member, House Judiciary Committee
“One need not agree with all of views on intervention found in the thoughtful book, Opposing the Crusader State, to recognize that it provides a tremendously useful survey of the history, rationales, and contemporary relevance of opponents of military activism. Higgs and Close have brought commentaries on the past and present together in clear and cogent way that will challenge even skeptical readers.”
—RICHARD K. BETTS, Director, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute
“Opposing the Crusader State argues from various perspectives that the United States has a core commitment to the principle of individual liberty, which is best served through limited government and respect for the rights of the individual. Yet, the United States has increasingly undermined its ability to fulfill this commitment through an ever more ambitious imperialistic and interventionist foreign policy. . . . Opposing the Crusader State provides ample evidence that this drive is ineffective and has little chance of success. Moreover, it ultimately threatens the prosperity and liberty at home it is purportedly designed to protect. The United States government should return to its more traditionally defined role of protecting national security, and trust the millions of U.S. citizens, organizations, missionaries, and business men and women to carry out the more complex task of communicating the value and lessons of freedom, justice and equality to a broader world.”
—ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
“It doesn’t seem to matter how badly America’s foreign policy of global intervention has failed. The governing elite advocate more and more extensive intervention. . . . In Opposing the Crusader State Higgs and Close marshal a range of essays debunking the prevailing interventionist consensus. . . . Most Americans want peace. Most American politicians want war, or at least the sort of interventionist foreign policy that leads to war. How to help the former to rein in the latter? Higgs and Close provide a mix of history, theory, and experience that should aid development of a new, noninterventionist foreign policy.”
—THE FREEMAN
“The editors of Opposing the Crusader State indicate that the volume is intended to contribute to a more peaceful and prosperous world by reconsidering “current approaches to international security and economic development.” The fourteen chapters (not including the Introduction authored by the editors) critically examine U.S. foreign policy with a particular emphasis on the relevance of noninterventionism as an alternative to current policy. This book is not intended to be a specific contribution to Austrian economics. That said, Austrian economists will find this volume intriguing because they have long engaged in the economic and historical analysis of foreign policy and global interventionism. In light of the United States’s long history of global interventionism, the insights of this volume and the writings of Austrian economists on these issues are of the utmost contemporary importance. . . . Opposing the Crusader State is an important volume. It provides numerous insights regarding the history of U.S. foreign policy, as well as the limitations on what foreign policy can achieve. The volume also offers bold alternatives to the current policy of global interventionism. Scholars and policymakers from a variety of disciplines will find the contributions of value. Austrian economists will find the volume of interest, especially when considered in the context of earlier writings by Mises, Rothbard and Hayek. Much research remains to be done on U.S. foreign policy and global interventions. For example, what is the best strategy toward weak and failed states? What policies should developed countries adopt to deal with ‘the bottom billion’? . . .What are the costs and benefits of an American empire? . . . What are the costs and potential ‘global bads’ associated with these interventions? These are just some of the open issues in the realm of international relations and development. This volume provides an excellent starting point for addressing these and other related issues.”
—REVIEW OF AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS
"Opposing the Crusader State: Alternatives to Global Intervention, edited by Robert Higgs and Carl B. Close, questions the wisdom of ever using military strength to "impose democracy" on other nations. Published by the Independent Institute, the book argues ‘nation-building’ is unlikely to create democracy any time in the near future in places like Afghanistan, Iraq or Haiti—countries with long histories of dictatorship, repression, revolts and political massacres. ‘Trying to establish democracy through military occupation is not a coherent, defensible policy. There is no theory on which it is based; it has no proven technique or methodology; and no experts know how to do it,’ writes political scientist James L. Payne in his essay ‘Does Nation Building Work?’ ‘The record shows that it usually fails, and even when it appears to succeed, the positive result owes more to historical evolution and local political culture than to anything nation builders might have done.’ Payne details how our Iraq invasion devastated that nation's local infrastructure, increasing hostility to the ongoing U.S. occupation. Opposing the Crusader State argues the development of international trade does far more to improve less-developed societies than military invasions. ‘An imposition of democracy in poor and politically unstable countries, as currently being attempted in Afghanistan and Iraq, is at least as likely to produce hostility as democratization and stability,’ writes German sociologist Erich Weede in his essay ‘The Diffusion of Prosperity and Peace by Globalization.’ ‘Why should a country be surprised when it is attacked after its government has involved itself in far-off concerns?’ Weede asks. . . . If Obama considers these insights before his decision about Afghanistan, perhaps he will avoid repeating the tragic escalation in Vietnam launched 44 years ago in 1965.”
—CHARLESTON (WV) GAZETTE About the Editors Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for the Independent Institute and editor of The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the Johns Hopkins University, and he has been a member of the faculty at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, and Seattle University, and a visiting professor at the University of Economics in Prague. He is the author of eight books, the most recent of which are Depression, War, and Cold War and Neither Liberty nor Safety, and the editor or co-editor of five books. A contributor to many scholarly volumes, he is also the author of more than 100 articles and reviews in the professional journals of economics, demography, history, and public policy and the author of many articles in the popular press. He was named to the Templeton Foundations Honor Roll for Colleges and Universities in 1989. He received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Association of Private Enterprise Education in 1993; the Friedrich von Wieser Memorial Prize for Excellence in Economic Education from the Prague Conference on Political Economy in 2006; the Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties from the Center for Independent Thought in 2006; and the Gary G. Schlarbaum Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Liberty from the Ludwig von Mises Institute in 2007.
Carl P. Close is Research Fellow and Academic Affairs Director at the Independent Institute and Assistant Editor of The Independent Review. He is co-editor (with Robert Higgs) of The Challenge of Liberty (2006) and Re-Thinking Green (2005). His research interests include environmental policy, the history of economic and political thought, and the political economy of propaganda. He received his master’s degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
|
|
 |
|
