ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I attempt to provide a comprehensive demonstration that, contrary to the mainstream economic consensus, there is nothing inherent in defense that makes it belong to the category of neoclassically understood public goods, thus indicating that its effective provision does not require the existence of a territorial monopoly of force and could be satisfactorily delivered in a purely market-based system. This analysis implies that within a contractual, competitive, and purely voluntary social order, this task could be accomplished even with respect to protection goods that affect wide geographical areas, while avoiding the problem of agency infighting.
