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Ayn Rand on Foreign Policy
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Economic boycott of Russia & they will retreat
Russia, like Nazi Germany, like any bully, feeds on appeasement and will retreat placatingly at the first sound of firm opposition.
[From March 1964 Playboy magazine interview:] I would advocate an economic boycott of Soviet Russia; and you would see that regime collapse without the loss of a single American life.
Source: The Ayn Rand Column (L. A. Times), "Cuban Crisis," p. 62
, Oct 1, 1998
Essence of capitalism's foreign policy is free trade
The essence of capitalism's foreign policy is free trade--i.e., the abolition of trade barriers, of protective tariffs, of special privileges--the opening of the world's trade routes to
free international exchange and competition among the private citizens of all countries dealing directly with one another.
Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon, by Harry Binswanger, p.169
, Jan 1, 1988
Repudiate foreign aid and all international self-immolation
We do need a policy based on long-range principles, i.e., an ideology. But a revision of our foreign policy, from its basic premises on up, is what today's anti-ideologists dare not contemplate.
The worse its results, the louder our public leaders proclaim that our foreign policy is bipartisan.
A proper solution would be to elect statesmen--if such appeared--with a radically different foreign policy, a policy explicitly and proudly dedicated to the defense of
America's rights and national self-interests, repudiating foreign aid and all forms of international self-immolation.
Source: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p.266, by Ayn Rand
, Jul 15, 1986
Outlaw use of force both internationally and domestically
It is true that nuclear weapons have made wars too horrible to contemplate. But it makes no difference to a man whether he is killed by a nuclear bomb or a dynamite bomb or an old-fashioned club. Nor does the number of other victims or the scale of the
destruction make any difference to him. And there is something obscene in the attitude of those who regard horror as a matter of numbers--and more: who are willing to condone the slaughter of defenseless victims, but march in protest against wars between
the well-armed.If nuclear weapons are a dreadful threat and mankind cannot afford war any longer, then mankind cannot afford statism any longer. Let no man of good will take it upon his conscience to advocate the rule of force--outside or inside
his own country. Let all those who are actually concerned with peace--those who do love man and do care about his survival--realize that if war is ever to be outlawed, it is the use of force that has to be outlawed.
Source: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p. 42, by Ayn Rand
, Jul 15, 1986
United Nations has delivered half of world to the Communists
The declared goal of the communist countries is the conquest of the world. What they stand to gain from a collaboration with the (relatively) free countries is the latter's material, financial, scientific, and intellectual resources; the free countries
have nothing to gain from the communist countries. Therefore, the only form of common policy or compromise possible between two such parties is the policy of property owners who make piecemeal concessions to an armed thug in exchange for his promise
not to rob them.The U.N. has delivered a larger part of the globe's surface and population into the power of Soviet Russia than Russia could ever hope to conquer by armed force. An institution allegedly formed for the purpose of
using the united might of the world to stop an aggressor, has become means of using the united might of the world to force the surrender of one helpless country after another into the aggressor's power.
Source: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p.148, by Ayn Rand
, Jul 15, 1986
Withdraw from UN; sever relations with USSR
Q: Would you favor U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations?RAND: Yes. I do not sanction the grotesque pretense of an organization allegedly devoted to world peace and human rights, which includes Soviet Russia, the worst aggressor
and bloodiest butcher in history, as one of its members.
The notion of protecting rights, with Soviet Russia among the protectors, is an insult to the concept of rights and to the intelligence of any man who is asked to endorse or sanction such an organization. I do not believe that an individual should
cooperate with criminals, and, for all the same reasons, I do not believe that free countries should cooperate with dictatorships.
Q: Would you advocate severing diplomatic relations with Russia?
RAND: Yes.
Source: Interview in Playboy Magazine
, Mar 1, 1964
Page last updated: Apr 30, 2021