This Wednesday at 7 PM, I will be debating George Mason University economist and prominent blogger Bryan Caplan on libertarianism and foreign policy. The debate will take place at George Mason Law School, 3301 Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA, in Room 221. It is near the Virginia Square Orange Line Metro stop.
Bryan summarized his case for “pacifism” (by which he means opposition to all warfare, but not all violence of any kind) in this post. I outlined my own far less dovish view here.
Bryan and I agree on the vast majority of other issues – not only in terms of bottom-line policy preferences, but in the way we get to those conclusions. Bryan’s book The Myth of the Rational Voter even made my list of fifteen books that influenced me the most. So it’s both interesting and thought-provoking that we disagree so much about this question, one that tends to divide libertarians among themselves, just as it also often divides liberals and conservatives. It should be a fun debate, and hopefully an enlightening one.
NOTE: I am reposting this announcement for those who might have missed it when I first posted it a couple weeks ago. I apologize for the duplication.