Thinking about Foreign Policy

[FONT=Times,Times New Roman] The reason there is so much sloppy thinking about foreign policy among libertarians (not to mention nearly everyone else) is that most people don’t know how to approach the subject. You can see this whenever someone uses analogies such as the bully on a playground or the madman with a baby strapped to his chest drawing his machine gun in a crowded mall. As we’ll see below, these tempting analogies have nothing to do with foreign policy. If we let them guide our thinking we will come to erroneous conclusions.

[/FONT][FONT=Times,Times New Roman]As amazing as this will sound, the most fundamental problem of foreign-policy analysis — even among libertarians — is the absence of the state. If you look closely at most discussions, you will notice that government plays an insignificant role in the story. This is especially true in discussions about American foreign policy. There is an implicit assumption that the state’s actual role is to carry out the wishes of the people, as if they were the principal decision-makers in the matter. Once the discussion moves onto that track, all hope for a sensible conclusion is lost.[/FONT]
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