Opposing the Crusader State Alternatives to Global Interventionism

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 American's interests are served best by intervening abroad to secure open markets for U.S. exports, fight potential enemies fat 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 misunderstanding 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." Book jacket.

Robert Higgs is a senior fellow in political economy for the Independent Institute and an editor of The Independent Review. He has edited numerous scolarly volumes and is the author of several books, including Against Leviathan; Crisis and Leviathan; Depression, War, and Cold War; and Resurgence of the Warfare State. His popular articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications, and he has appeared on ABC, CNBC, C-SPAN, NBC, and NPR. Carl P. Close is the academic affairs director for the Independent Institute and an assistant editor of The Independent Review. He is the coeditor of The Challenge of Liberty and Re-Thinking Green and has contributed to The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.