Abstract: Newhard (2017) recommends that anarcho-capitalist societies acquire nuclear weapons and adopt aggressive territorial-defense postures. This paper substantiates the argument for the necessity of such actions under reasonable assumptions. In particular, these societies are likely to be relatively small in geographic size, population, and economic output, inhibiting strategic depth and military spending. Deterrence and defense will therefore require that anarchists seize the offensive to achieve quick and decisive victory in any conflict through a combination of preventative and preemptive strikes and massive retaliation. Given the likely decentralized and asymmetric character of private armed forces, I recommend a strategic doctrine of disproportionate force modeled after Israeli doctrine.

Keywords: Anarcho-capitalism, private defense, national defense, war-making, Israel

Download PDF: “A Strategic Doctrine of Disproportionate Force for Decentralized Asymmetric Warfare”

Abstract: Minimum deterrence, though consistent with the nonaggression principle, is inadequate to deter states from invading anarchist territory and provides inadequate means of territorial defense when deterrence fails. In order to be effective, and thus attract clients, private defense agencies may want to adopt a military posture that incorporates first-strike counterforce and second-strike countervalue capabilities. To this end, they must acquire weapons of mass destruction—including tactical and strategic nuclear weapons—and long-range delivery vehicles capable of penetrating deep into enemy territory. They must also decline to extend the nonaggression principle to states and individuals outside the voluntary defense network. Paradoxically, advertising such a posture while possessing a nuclear arsenal will save lives on both sides by minimizing the probability that anarchists must ever wage a defensive war at all.

Keywords: private defense, national defense, nonagression principle, minimum deterrence, nuclear weapons

Download PDF: “Minimum Deterrence as a Vulnerability in the Market Provision of National Defense”

Abstract: This essay offers a standard by which to assess the feasibility of market anarchism. In anarchist thought, the concept of feasibility concerns both the ability and the willingness of private defense agencies to liberate their clients from state oppression. I argue that the emergence of a single stateless pocket of effective, privately-provided defense for a “reasonable” length of time is sufficient to affirm feasibility. I then consider the failure of private defense agencies to achieve even this standard. Furthermore, I identify five possible explanations for the conspicuous absence of private defense agencies. These explanations are entrepreneurial, technological, or economic in nature, or result from a lack of consumer demand or a lack of incentive for violence specialists to refrain from aggression. Of these, only an economic deficiency renders anarchism intrinsically unworkable.

Keywords: market anarchism, private defense agencies, private production of law, inevitability of government

Download Paper: “On the Conspicuous Absence of Private Defense”