How is libertarianism affected by national borders?

But it is perfectly legitimate for libertarians to consider whether there is anything they can do, militarily or otherwise, to overcome coercion wherever it occurs.

Some interventions have made a major difference. But for America's entry into the Second World War, for example, Germany and Japan would have imposed their dreadful dictatorships on most of the world. But for America's intervention in Korea, the people in the south would now be suffering the same miserable fate as those in the north. And but for Australia's intervention in East Timor, the country would be suffering under Indonesia's heavy-handed military rule, now apparent in West Papua.

There are also some current examples to consider. One of the consequences of the climate change panic for example, is that around 40,000 children in the Democratic Republic of Congo work in appallingly inhumane, slave-like conditions in cobalt mines. The cobalt is used in lithium-ion batteries required by electric vehicles.

In China, the government has imprisoned more than a million Uyghurs since 2017 and subjected those not detained to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labour, and forced sterilizations. Forced labour is used to produce solar products.

It is estimated that China has 98 percent of the world's manufacturing capacity for photovoltaic ingots, 97 percent for photovoltaic wafers, 81 percent for solar cells, and 77 percent for solar modules. Many of the largest global producers of photovoltaic ingots and wafers, solar cells, and solar modules directly source polysilicon from entities believed to use forced labour in its production.

Some libertarians would argue these are not issues in which Australians should become involved. Yet even a boycott of products associated with such coercion would be more consistent with libertarian values than doing nothing based on the "no entangling alliances" idea.

JS Mill was also an advocate of utilitarianism in addition to classical liberalism. This philosophy, generally attributed to Jeremy Bentham, is often summarised as the pursuit of the greatest good for the greatest number. For libertarians, it should mean the greatest liberty for the greatest number. Mill would agree.