Criticism:
Anarchism can't provide defense against invaders.
For defense against invaders, there is:
- Militia - local, defense-only, non-standing army
- Large insurance firms or corporations (and consortiums of such)
who have a lot to lose
- guerrilla warfare
There are factors which make attacking stateless areas less likely or more costly than attacking states:
- Free-trade makes invasion less likely than under statist regimes, where protectionism is commonplace.
- Without a State apparatus, anarchist societies are harder to hold - no existing authorities to co-opt.
- No statist standing armies to fear.
- Undermining of "us" vs. "them" propaganda, i.e. no unified fearsome "them."
- No tax-base for competing states to fear.
- Not land-based, so WMDs are impractical.