Hans-Hermann Hoppe - The Myth of National Defense: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production

ESSAYS ON THE
THEORY AND HISTORY
OF SECURITY PRODUCTION

EDITED BY HANS-HERMANN HOPPE

THE MYTH OF NATIONAL DEFENSE:

ESSAYS ON THE
THEORY AND HISTORY
OF SECURITY PRODUCTION

Copyright 2003 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute

Indexes prepared by Brad Edmonds

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews. For information write the Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832.

ISBN: 0-945466-37-4

To the memory of
Gustave de Molinari

(18191911)

The Mises Institute dedicates this volume to all of its generous donors, and in particular wishes to thank these Patrons:

Don Printz, M.D., Mrs. Floy Johnson,
Mr. and Mrs. R. Nelson Nash, Mr. Abe Siemens

Mr. Steven R. Berger, Mr. Douglas E. French,

Mr. and Mrs. Richard D. Riemann (top dog),

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Schirrick,

Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Sebrell,

In memory of Jeannette Zummo, Mr. W.A. Richardson

Anonymous, Mr. Steven R. Berger,

Mr. Richard Bleiberg, Mr. John Hamilton Bolstad,

Mr. Herbert Borbe, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Cooke,

Dr. Larry J. Eshelman, Bud Evans (Harley-Davidson of Reno),

Mrs. Annabelle Fetterman, Mr. and Mrs. Willard Fischer,

The Dolphin Sky Foundation, Mr. Frank W. Heemstra,

Mr. Albert L. Hillman, Jr., Richard J. Kossmann, M.D.,

Mrs. Sarah Paris Kraft, Mr. David Kramer,

Mr. Frederick L. Maier, Mr. and Mrs. William W. Massey, Jr.,

Mr. Norbert McLuckie, Mr. Samuel Mellos,

Mr. Joseph Edward Paul Melville,

Dr. and Mrs. Donald W. Miller, Jr., Mr. Michael Robb,

Ms. Ann V. Rogers, Mr. Conrad Schneiker, Mr. Tibor Silber,

Mr. Charles Strong, Mr. and Mrs. Reginald Thatcher,

Mr. Joe Vierra, Ms. Anne Williamson

This volume would not have come into existence without the help and encouragement of Professor Gerard Radnitzky. He first proposed the project to me and established the initial contact to Professor Ragnar Gerholm and Gregory Breland, whose help was instrumental in realizing it.

The present book grew out of the proceedings of a conference committee on the subject of national defense which I organized and chaired, and which was held February 913, 2000 in Seoul, South Korea, in conjunction with the 22nd International Conference on the Unity of Sciences (ICUS). Special thanks go to the conference chairman, Professor Ragnar Gerholm, for his invitation and personal interest in the Committees subject, and to Gregory Breland (ICUS Executive Director) for his admirable organizational and logistical help. The subject matter of my committee and this book, as fundamental as it is, is rarely, if ever, touched upon and represents somewhat of an intellectual taboo. ICUS must be lauded for its courage to open the debate on a subject of truly vital importance.

Thanks go also to Cristian Comanescu, David Gordon, Stephan Kinsella, and Josef Sima for their assistance during various phases in preparing the current volume, and to Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. and the Ludwig von Mises Institute for publishing it. Last, and most importantly, I thank all contributors to this volume for their cooperation.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Las Vegas, Nevada
January 2003

Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Luigi Marco Bassani and Carlo Lottieri

Murray N. Rothbard

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Bertrand Lemennicier

Gerard Radnitzky

Joseph R. Stromberg

Larry J. Sechrest

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

Walter Block

Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Jrg Guido Hlsmann

I n the American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson affirmed

these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is in their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

More than 200 years after the Declaration of Independence, it seems appropriate to raise the question whether governments have in fact done what they were designed to do, or if experience or theory has provided us with grounds to consider other possibly more effective guards for our future security.

The present volume aims to provide an answer to this fundamental question.

In fact, this question has recently assumed new urgency through the events of September 11, 2001. Governments are supposed to protect us from terrorism. Yet what has been the U.S. governments role in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?

The U.S. government commands a defense budget of $400 billion per annum, a sum equal to the combined annual defense budgets of the next 24 biggest government spenders. It employs a worldwide network of spies and informants. However, it was unable to prevent commercial airliners from being hijacked and used as missiles against prominent civilian and military targets.

Worse, the U.S. government did not only fail to prevent the disaster of September 11, it actually contributed to the likelihood of such an event. In pursuing an interventionist foreign policy (taking the form of economic sanctions, troops stationed in more than 100 countries, relentless bombings, propping up despotic regimes, taking sides in irresolvable land and ethnic disputes, and otherwise attempting political and military management of whole areas of the globe), the government provided the very motivation for foreign terrorists and made the U.S. their prime target.

Moreover, how was it possible that men armed with no more than box cutters could inflict the terrible damage they did? Obviously, this was possible only because the government prohibited airlines and pilots from protecting their own property by force of arms, thus rendering every commercial airline vulnerable and unprotected against hijackers. A $50 pistol in the cockpit could have done what $400 billion in the hands of government were unable to do.