Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

national defense agencies strike me as being not only
imp r act i c a I but from the na t ur a I righ t s po i n t 0 f view
jus t a s i mm 0 r a 1 a s the s tat e • W0 u I d therebe any me a n s
to defend the nonstate if the concept of national
defense companies were abandoned?
Two mea n s by wh i c h de fenseaga instinvas ion migh t
be effected are nonviolent civilian defense and guerrilla
warfare. Nonviolent civilian, or nonmilitary,
d e fen s e i s d e fin e d a s a s t rat e g y wh i c h "a i ms t 0 de f eat
mi 1 itary aggression by using resistance by the civilian
popUlation as a whole to make it impossible for the
enemy to establish and maintain political control over
the country."(103) As such it does not depend upon the
defense of physical terrain from enemy occupation but
on passive resistance to enemy rule by the civilian
populatione It is based on the belief that all governmental
power must ultimately come from the consent of
the governed, that "so long as the citizens remain firm
and refuse to cooperate and obey, the real power lies
with them."(104) Nonviolent defense is actually an
integral part of the anarchist tradition going back at
least to Etienne de La Boetie in the sixteenth century
and including anarchists as disparate as William
Godwin, Leo Tolstoy and Benjamin Tucker.(lOS) But how
would such defense proceed?
Gene Sharp points out that an invasion is not an
end in itself but a means to a higher end. This end
must be one of two goals: (a) to eliminate the fear of
invasion by striking first, or (b) to occupy the
invaded territory for economic or political purposes.
Since it would be impossible to use the civilian
d e fen s e for a g g res s i v e pur p 0 s e s, i t wo u I d not 0 n I y
dis pel the bel i e f by an 0 therna t ion t hat a coun try employing
a civilian defense could constitute a threat,
but it would also eliminate the possibility of a
nat ion, desiring to wage an aggressive war against such
a country, using the time-honored excuse of defending
itself from an imminent attact by striking first. Conseq
u e n t I y, any nat ion i n vadin g a coun try em p loy i n g a
civilian defense would brand itself as the clear
a g g res s 0 r for bot hitsown cit i zensand a I I the W0 rId
to see.
While a civilian defense would have no means to
stop an invasion from taking place, it is designed to
prevent the invader from obtaining the objetive(s) for
which the invasion was made. This would be done by the
refusal to cooperate with the invader and/or by the use
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