The Myth of National Defense: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production [Hardcover]

Hans-Hermann Hoppe (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

With eleven chapters by top libertarian scholars on all aspects of defense, this book edited by Hans-Hermann Hoppe it represents an ambitious attempt to extend the idea of free enterprise to the provision of security services. It argues that "national defense" as provided by government is a myth not unlike the myth of socialism itself. It is more viably privatized and replaced by the market provision of security.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From the introduction:

"Even aside from day-to-day security risks, the reality of terrorism and its resulting mayhem has demonstrated the inability of government to provide adequate security against attacks on person and property. The lesson of September 11 is indisputable: government had not only failed to act as a guardian of security and protection but had actually been the primary agent in creating insecurity and exposure to risk, and, moreover, did not achieve secure justice once the crime had been committed.

"However, this was not the lesson that was drawn from the affair. Instead, the political elite successfully exploited public fears to vastly increase government spending, central credit inflation, bureaucratic management, citizen surveillance, regulation of transportation, and generally wage an all out attack on liberty and property.

"Meanwhile, US foreign policy pursued in the aftermath became more aggressively interventionist, violent, and threatening (the US refused even to rule out the employment of nuclear weapons against enemy regimes) than it had been before, thereby increasing the number of recruits into the ranks of people who are willing to use extreme violence as a means of retribution.

"In the same way that government intervention in times of peace can generate perverse consequences in markets that do not tend toward clearing, in times of war, military intervention can thus have the effect of harming the prospects for peace and security and bringing about a permanent state of violence and political control. Truly, the political affairs of our time cry out for a complete rethinking of the issues of defense and security and the respective roles of government, the market, and society in providing them."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute; 1st edition (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945466374
• ISBN-13: 978-0945466376
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Down with the State's defense monopoly!, December 16, 2003

By 

Joshua Pettigrew (Monticello, AR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of National Defense: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production (Hardcover)

Economists that adhere to sound economic theory will inevitably take on many of the political sacred cows of our time. You can take a lot of heat from passionate listeners for stepping out against policies that are politically correct and advocating ones that are politically incorrect. For the brave souls that step out of line to do this, I salute you. However, there remain a few sacred cows that even these courageous individuals will not assail.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe in his book, Democracy: The God that Failed, took on several of these cows. He took on the ideas that the state is necessary for the production of defense, that democracy was a positive progression, that democracy and freedom go hand in hand, that democracy has no link to tyrannical systems like communism and fascism, and so on. He advocates in this book a system of natural order or anarcho-capitalism. In this system, fundamental private property law applies and the free market has assumed the production of goods that were produced almost exclusively by the state (education, roads, national defense, etc.).

Now Hoppe is back with plenty of assistance. The Myth of National Defense is an expansion of the ideas found inDemocracy:TGTF. The attention this time is primarily on defense. The questions "Does the state do its job of producing defense well?", "Will a free market defense alternative work?", "Would it be preferable to the state institutions?", "Is there any historic precedents?", "What are some of the potential problems involved?", "How can this system be implemented?", "What will keep such a system turning into a state?", "Could such a system adequately defend against states?", and others are raised and answered in this book. This does not mean that all angles are covered and this is the end of discussion. The idea of the free market providing defense is not new (this book is dedicated to precursor Gustave de Molinari 1819-1911), but you will be disappointed if you expect to find a large library of literature devoted to this subject.

Is this book for the casual reader? Not quite. Like Democracy: TGTF before it, The Myth of National Defense can only be fully understood by those who have a bit of economic knowledge under their belt. While this is a great book involving sound Austrian economic theory, it is not to be confused with good economic primers likeEconomics in One Lesson or Economics For Real People. Hopefully, we will see a book that covers the subject of the state and national defense in a way that is accessible to the layman.

One of my favorite essays in this book was Privateering and National Defense: Naval Warfare for Private Profit. Larry Sechrest shows how private enterprise being involved in national defense is not without precedent. In the War of 1812 and many wars prior, it was taken for granted that private ships specially licensed by their government to capture or (rarely) destroy the ships and cargo of the enemy existed. These privateers would capture merchant or military ships from enemy lands, take them to port, and (depending on the outcome of courts which examined whether ships captured were enemy vessels or not) sell the ship and cargo at auction. This practice was not always but often profitable for the ship shareholders and crew (who earned a percentage of the take). It also had the added bonus of being a successful form of defense. So successful that large nations with large navies feared smaller nations with privateers to the point of outlawing the practice via treaty. The whole essay is very enlightening to me. I had never heard of the practice even though 800 American privateer ships participated in the American Revolution!

This book is a great read and welcome continuation of the theories rendered in Democracy: TGTF. If you enjoyedDemocracy: TGTF, then The Myth of National Defense is a must read. Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anti-Statist Alternatives to National Defense., November 12, 2008

By 

New Age of Barbarism "zosimos" (EVROPA.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of National Defense: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production (Hardcover)

_The Myth of National Defense: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production_, published in 2003 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and edited by Austrian economist and anarcho-capitalist philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe is a series of essays by noted scholars and anarchists which attempts to show how non-statist solutions to the problem of national defense may be accomplished. These individuals make the claim that the state is a coercive institution that through force or the threat of force preys off the people and seizes their property while making the ideological claim that it is necessary to protect rights and property. As these scholars attempt to prove, this necessity is founded on pure ideology which is widely accepted by most mainstream scholars and by the populace at large. However, alternatives to state monopoly of the production of security may be feasible and these scholars attempt to show how such alternatives could work. In particular, one possibility that has been suggested is the use of privately owned insurance companies as the means for providing defense (in line with a suggestion by liberal economist Gustave de Molinari (1819 - 1912)). If such private production of defense is possible, then the scholars in this book would suggest that the world would become more peaceful and violence against person and property would be minimized. There may however be problems with this view in the sense that it is unclear how monopoly could be prevented from arising among such competing defense producing insurance agencies which would then lead to greater coercion. Also, as pointed out in one of the essays (though argued against), it is unclear as to whether there is not coercion in any club, organization, or group. This seems to be a difficulty with human nature and the human tendency to form groups when such groups become too large. The book also considers the possibility of secession so as to weaken the state and the New World Order, one world government, should such arise. I believe that a further question the authors of this volume have not fully explored is the relationship between technology and the growth of the state. In light of technological developments which enable global communication and global travel, it becomes easier to understand how the global order of nation states has emerged. Nevertheless, this book offers several interesting possibilities and alternatives to democracy as currently understood and the emerging global welfare-warfare state.

This book begins with an Introduction by Hans-Hermann Hoppe in which he re-examines the Declaration of Independence as written by Thomas Jefferson. Hoppe argues that rather than securing rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as maintained by Jefferson, the United States government has largely ignored this mandate and become ever more tyrannical. Hoppe further shows how national defense as offered by the state monopoly has largely failed in light of the attacks of September 11. Hoppe considers the case of monopoly, showing how monopoly is largely viewed as bad in nearly all cases by mainstream economists and philosophers, except for the case of the state and the production of defense. Hoppe considers a thesis of Ludwig von Mises that in order for government to fulfill its primary function it must be democratically organized and it must allow for unlimited secession. But, as Hoppe argues this would in effect render the state a voluntary membership organization. Hoppe then outlines the essays which appear in this volume, arguing against a coercive state monopoly on the production of defense with the power to tax.

Section One of this book is entitled "State-Making and War-Making". The first essay is entitled "The Problem of Security: Historicity of the State and "European Realism"" by Luigi Marco Bassani and Carlo Lottieri. These authors consider the development of libertarian thinking concerning the state and the role of the state in anthropological and sociological literature. The authors consider the conquest theory of the state and discuss such individuals and theories as those of Max Weber, Oppenheimer, the Italian elitist (Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto), the European Realists (Carl Schmitt and Otto Brunner), and modern libertarian thinkers (such as Murray Rothbard). The authors show how the modern state originated in feuds between Germanic princes and show how world government and the New World Order has arisen. The second essay is entitled "War, Peace, and the State" by Murray Rothbard. This essay takes an extreme view on the role of the state in war, arguing that the state has no right to make war, and maintaining that in self defense of self or property it is necessary to pinpoint violators. Section Two of this book is entitled "Government Forms, War, and Strategy". The third essay is entitled "Monarchy and War" by Erik von Kuenhelt-Liddehn. This essay written by a European aristocratic thinker argues that monarchy is superior to democracy (noting how Western civilization rests on the death of two persons, Socrates and Jesus Christ, and that both were murdered by the popular will). The author explains how monarchy led to wars which were less violent and more humane than the era of democratic war and total war. The author also considers some of the horrors of the Second World War showing Allied atrocities, as well as the rise of the totalitarian movements. This author maintains that the state is the result of Original Sin and argues the case for monarchy over democracy. The fourth essay is entitled "Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation or Monopoly?" by Bertrand Lemennicier. This essay argues against monopoly of nuclear weapons and for proliferation through analyzing the situation using game theory. The fifth essay is entitled "Is Democracy More Peaceful than Other Forms of Government?" by Gerard Radnitzky. This article considers the case of war and the state showing the role of democracy. In essence, the author shows the horrors of state involvement in war, mentioning the results of Rummel showing that governments are responsible for countless deaths ("democide") but arguing against Rummel's democratic peace theory. The author argues against the widely accepted "democratic peace theory" arguing that democracies are not more peaceful than other forms of government (and in fact are far more violent) and considers the case of monarchy showing how democracy has led to an era of total war. The author also shows that the idea that democracies do not go to war against each other is false and shows how supposed democracies get to define what constitutes democracy so that they can fight to "make the world safe for democracy". Section Three is entitled "Private Alternatives to State Defense and Warfare". The sixth essay is entitled "Mercenaries, Guerrillas, Militias, and the Defense of Minimal States and Free Societies" by Joseph R. Stromberg. This essay attempts to show various private alternatives to national defense by considering the cases of mercenaries, guerrillas, and militias and showing their role in the American War for Independence, the Southern War of Secession, and the Anglo-Boer War. The author shows how such private means of defense allow for pinpointing of violators as suggested by Rothbard thus eliminating damage done to the lives or property of innocents. The seventh essay is entitled "Privateering and National Defense: Naval Warfare for Private Profit" by Larry J. Sechrest. This essay shows the role of privateering as a private alternative to state produced naval warfare. The eighth essay is entitled "The Will To Be Free: The Role of Ideology in National Defense" by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel. This essay shows the role of conquest in the development of the state which arose in the capture of hunter-gatherer bands and the rise of the Agricultural Revolution. The author maintains that ideology is essential to maintaining the power of the state. Section Four is entitled "Private Security Production: Practical Applications". The ninth essay is entitled "National Defense and the Theory of Externalities, Public Goods, and Clubs" by Walter Block. This essay argues against all so-called public goods, maintaining that they can be produced privately, and argues that the state is coercive unlike voluntary private clubs. The tenth essay is entitled "Government and the Private Production of Defense" by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. This essay begins by showing the failure of the state to protect rights and property. Hoppe shows how the state interferes both domestically and abroad and results in countless violations of rights and erodes the institution of property. Hoppe shows how the right to exclude has been systematically eroded and with it the right to property. Hoppe argues that instead of a state monopoly on defense production, that private insurance companies would be ideal candidates to offer protective services. Hoppe maintains that such private production of defense would lead to a more peaceful society in that there would finally be disincentives for aggressing. The eleventh essay is entitled "Secession and the Production of Defense" by Jorg Guido Hulsmann. This essay considers the case of secession and shows the necessity of defining this term carefully. The author argues for secession and considers various secessionist movements and the role of guerrilla fighters. The author argues that secession can be used to achieve political reforms, establish a free society, and further break up schemes towards global government. However, it must be pointed out that in order for a secessionist movement to survive it is frequently necessary to appeal to some overarching religious, nationalistic, or ideological motivation. The author does not find this problematic in that it unifies secessionists against the intrusive state.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars National defense ~ Corporatism, June 1, 2008

By 

Alaric - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Myth of National Defense: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production (Hardcover)

Hoppe here smashes myths surrounding the State's apparatus like a belligerent prohibitionist gentle-lady wielding an axe in a glass bar in the 1920's. Get it from the Ludwig Von Mises Institute at mises.org and help support the further publication and dissemination of scholarship in the same vein as Hoppe has accomplished here.