Harry Browne on Foreign Policy 2000 Libertarian Nominee for President

Sub-sections under Foreign Policy:
• China
• Other issues under Foreign Policy

Non-interference should be basis principle

America’s foreign policy should rest on four principles:
1. Non-interference:Our government should express good will and a desire for peace toward all-threatening no foreign country, arming or aiding no foreign governments, and giving terrorists no motivation to influence our government.
2. No foreign aid or military assistance:Little of the money reaches the average citizen in the target country. Most of it enriches the rulers-and it helps them stay in power and continue the policies that keep their countries poor.
3. Security against attack: America should have a protection against missile attacks, since that is the means by which an invader would conquer America.
4. Target the aggressors, not the innocent: Suppose that, even with a missile defense, America truly were threatened by a foreign ruler. A Libertarian President would target the ruler himself. He wouldn’t order bombers to kill the ruler’s innocent subjects.

End foreign aid to individual countries as well as agencies

Browne would eliminate foreign aid to the following countries and agencies:
• Colombia
• Egypt
• Israel
• Kosovo province
• Mexico
• North Korea
• Russia
• Turkey
• African Development Fund
• Agency for International Development(AID)
• International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• NATO Peace Keeping Missions
• UN Crisis and Humanitarian Aid
• UN Peace Keeping Missions
• World Bank

Mideast: End meddling with embargoes & peace negotiations

Browne supports the following principles concerning the Middle East:
• The US should end the economic embargo against Iraq.
• The US should not continue to play a prominent leadership role in the peace process between Israel and the Palestine Authority.
• Browne says, “The US has no business meddling in the affairs of other countries.”

Exit UN; extend diplomatic relations to all countries

Browne supports the following principles concerning the UN & diplomatic relations:
• The US should not commit military troops to UN peacekeeping missions
• The US should withdraw completely from the UN
• The US should have full diplomatic relations with Cuba
• The US should have full diplomatic relations with China
• The US should recognize and extend full diplomatic relations to Taiwan
• The US should have full diplomatic relations with nations with documented human rights abuses.

Bring US troops home from 100 countries overseas

On day one, they would all be cancellations of Executive Orders.
1. Pardon every non-violent drug offender, non-violent gun offender, and non-violent tax evader
2. Take steps to bring home troops from overseas, in 100 countries around the world.

Military involvement often fails even when US “wins”.

Illegal war actions set precedents for more future wars

Moral responsibility implies constant war.

Russia: No aid; no meddling; just free trade.

Replace all government aid with free trade

Avoid arms trade; promote peace by free trade

Govt’s role is to discourage attacks; not police the world

Low wages abroad are no reason to restrict imports

In fact, American workers compete quite well with low-wage countries because Americans are far more productive. Our two largest trade deficits are with China and Japan. Chinese wages are much lower than American wages, while Japanese wages are higher than American wages. So which way does it work? Actually, it doesn’t work either way. Extremely low wages reflect primitive production methods. American workers earn so much more than workers in, say, Malaysia because they are more skilled and have better machines and tools to work with. With these tools, each American worker produces far more each day than his Malaysian counterpart.

Nuclear espionage results from over-large bureaucracy

No import tariffs, regardless of human rights