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

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.



With eleven chapters by top libertarian scholars on all aspects of defense, this book 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.

Contents
Introduction Hans-Hermann Hoppe Section 1: State-Making and War-Making 1 The Problem of Security; Historicity of the State and “European Realism” - Luigi Marco Bassani and Carlo Lottieri 2 War, Peace, and the State - Murray N. Rothbard Section 2: Government Forms, War, and Strategy 3 Monarchy and War - Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn 4 Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation or Monopoly? - Bertrand Lemennicier 5 Is Democracy More Peaceful than Other Forms of Government? - Gerard Radnitzky Section 3: Private Alternatives to State Defense and Warfare 6 Mercenaries, Guerrillas, Militias, and the Defense of Minimal States and Free Societies - Joseph R. Stromberg 7 Privateering and National Defense: Naval Warfare for Private Profit - Larry J. Sechrest 8 The Will to be Free: The Role of Ideology in National Defense - Jeffrey Rogers Hummel Section 4: Private Security Production: Practical Applications 9 National Defense and the Theory of Externalities, Public Goods, and Clubs - Walter Block 10 Government and the Private Production of Defense - Hans-Hermann Hoppe 11 Secession and the Production of Defense - Jörg Guido Hülsmann Subject Index Name Index Bibliography List of Contributors