War and the Austrian School: Modern Austrian economists take on aggressive wars (original) (raw)

War and the Austrian School: Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek

The Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 2011

The Austrian school of economics is generally considered an antiwar school. The Austrian view is not derived from a religious or class-based ideological viewpoints, but instead derives entirely from the school's fundamental economic tenets. This article examines the writings of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek as they relate to war and the causes of war. (A predecessor article on Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, and Friedrich von Wieser, the founders of the Austrian School, appeared in vol. 5, no. 1 of this journal.)

Austrian Economics as Political Philosophy

2015

For example, although some Austrians, most prominently Ludwig von Mises, may appear to adhere to something like the above-mentioned "possessive individualism", it will subsequently become evident that this "growth-ethic" is not built into the basic economic theory in any significant way (but in the case of Mises it gets significant when he adds his "utilitarian" political philosophy to the mix). 8 In the present study I will, however, mostly point to the potential of novel combinations. Actual examples of concrete alternative combinations will be quite sketchy and tentative. 9 Of course, most of the (modern) members of the Austrian school are not from the country of Austria. With some possible (and apparent) exceptions the adjective Austrian always refers to economics, and not to nationality.

War and the Market

The Global South, 2009

The essay examines the place of war in the work of the original theoreticians of neo-liberalism. The reigning dogmas proclaim that the free market and economic competition offer a way in which irrational and destructive violence between states can be transmuted into rational and productive forms from which all parties stand to benefit. Von Mises and Hayek, however, show clearly that the destruction that war brings has its place in the market system, freeing up natural resources and even labor. It is above all the wasteful and irrational social orders outside of