Libertarian perspectives on foreign intervention

Libertarian perspectives on foreign intervention started as a reaction to the Cold War mentality of military interventionism promoted by conservatives like William F. Buckley which had supplanted Old Right non-interventionism.[1] The Vietnam War split the uneasy alliance between growing numbers of self-identified libertarians and the Cold War conservatives. Libertarians opposed to the war joined the draft resistance and peace movements and created organizations such as Students for a Democratic Society. The split was aggravated at the 1969 Young Americans for Freedom convention where the burning of a draft card sparked physical confrontations among convention attendees, a walkout by a large number of libertarians, and the creation of antiwar libertarian organizations.[2] Libertarians generally oppose all U.S. government foreign aid to other nations, and many (although not all) oppose strategic alliances between the United States and foreign nations.[3]

Antiwar and non-interventionist libertarians were highly influenced by economist Murray Rothbard and author Karl Hess. Rothbard criticized imperialism and the rise of the American empire which needed war to sustain itself and to expand its global control.[4][5] Rothbard said, “Our entry into World War II was the crucial act in foisting a permanent militarization upon the economy and society, in bringing to the country a permanent garrison state, an overweening military-industrial complex, a permanent system of conscription."[6] This tradition is continued in the anti-war analysis of the Cato Institute's David Boaz[7] and former U.S. Representative Ron Paul.[8]

Some libertarians have criticized conservatives and those libertarian conservatives who supported the United States' 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupations,[9][10] however other libertarians like Randy Barnett[11] and John Hospers[12] supported the Iraq war. In 2010 the United States Libertarian Party criticized conservatives for supporting a "trillion-dollar foreign war."[13]

Some libertarians also criticize from a libertarian perspective the actions of foreign governments, like Saudi Arabia[14] and Israel. In "War Guilt in the Middle East" libertarian scholar Murray Rothbard details Israel's "aggression against Middle East Arabs," confiscatory policies and its "refusal to let these refugees return and reclaim the property taken from them."[15] Rothbard also criticized the “organized Anti-Anti-Semitism” that critics of the state of Israel have to suffer.[16] In "Property Rights and the 'Right of Return'" professor Richard Ebeling writes: "If a settlement is reached between the Israelis and the Palestinians, justice would suggest that all legitimate property should be returned to its rightful owners and that residence by those owners on their property should be once again permitted."[17] Attorney Stephen P. Halbrook in "The Alienation of a Homeland: How Palestine Became Israel" writes: “Palestinian Arabs have the rights to return to their homes and estates taken over by Israelis, to receive just compensation for loss of life and property, and to exercise national self-determination.”[18]

References

  1. ↑ Murray Rothbard, The Early 1960s: From Right to Left, excerpt from chapter 13 of Murray Rothbard The Betrayal of the American Right, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007.
  2. ↑ Rebecca E. Klatch, A Generation Divided: The New Left, the New Right, and the 1960s, University of California Press, 1999 ISBN 0-520-21714-4, 215-237.
  3. ↑ Libertarian Party Platform, "Foreign Policy". Online: http://www.lp.org/issues/foreign-policy
  4. ↑ Joseph R. Stromberg, Murray N. Rothbard on States, War, and Peace: Part I (also see Part II), Antiwar.com, originally published June 2000.
  5. ↑ See also Murray N. Rothbard, [www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard26.html War, Peace, and the State], first published 1963; Anatomy of the State, first published 1974, both at LewRockwell.com; and Rothbard on War, excerpts from a 1973 Reason Magazine article and other materials, published at Antiwar.com, undated.
  6. ↑ Murray N. Rothbard, Harry Elmer Barnes, RIP, from “Left and Right” final issue, 1968, republished at LewRockwell.com.
  7. ↑ David Boaz, The libertarian reader: classic and contemporary writings from Lao-tzu to Milton Friedman, Simon and Schuster, 1998, ISBN 0-684-84767-1
  8. ↑ Ron Paul, Opportunities for Peace and Nonintervention, LewRockwell.com, January 6, 2009.
  9. ↑ Doug Bandow, Battling the Bipartisan Consensus for War, originally published in Huffington Post, available at Cato Institute Website, added March 16, 2010.
  10. ↑ Walter Block, Randy Barnett: Pro War Libertarian?, LewRockwell.com, July 23, 2007.
  11. ↑ Barnett, Randy. "Libertarians and the War". Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2007. Online: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118463507387568429.html
  12. ↑ O'Grady, Jane. "John Hospers Obituary". The Guardian (UK), July 13, 2011. Online: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/13/john-hospers-obituary
  13. ↑ Libertarians criticize CPAC conservatives, United States Libertarian Party press release, February 18, 2010.
  14. ↑ Doug Bandow, Cato Handbook Recommendations for 108th Congress, Section 53. "The U.S. Alliance with Saudi Arabia", Cato Institute, 2003 ISBN 1-930865-39-2, ISBN 978-1-930865-39-6
  15. ↑ Murray Rothbard, War Guilt in the Middle East, "Left and Right", Vol. 3 No. 3 (Autumn 1967) (cited here.)
  16. ↑ Murray N. Rothbard, Pat Buchanan and the Menace of Anti-anti-semitism, December 1990, from The Irrepressible Rothbard, published at LewRockwell.com.
  17. ↑ Richard Ebeling, "Property Rights and the 'Right of Return'" http://www.fff.org/comment/com0305o.asp, Future of Freedom Foundation, May 26, 2003.
  18. ↑ Stephen P. Halbrook, Esq., "The Alienation of a Homeland: How Palestine Became Israel", Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. V, No. 4, Fall 1981.

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