> you can refuse to pay debts or confiscate stuff
So, theft and then massive condemnation on the world stage and a decreased credit rating, meaning less investment and your economy slowing down?

> non coercive I don't see the problem
Debt diplomacy by its very nature is coercive

China is a special case though since it's the government doing it

I'm all for private investment and such but not the government

Only countries can do debt diplomacy

Sorry you are right this isn't a subject I know much about

Ah that's fair

Lolbertarianism is far too boring

I would say that a government investing in another country with public funds isn't an acceptable way of influencing a nation

I'm all for private investment in other countries and the sharing of ideas and such

But I'd object to my government doing it

Do you not care about your country or state?

I do but I believe that a government should serve its people

I can see an argument for such tactics for national security

The best way that can be done is through taxation and an agressive foreign policy

Yeah I can see that argument

You can't just ignore the geopolitical power game

Putting the state in such an advantageous position over all others, which is serving the interests of the people at the same time

The geopolitical power game is states trying to do just that, what I said.

Yeah I object to it and think it's bad but so is war, there are times where both are necessary for the good of your nations citizens

If you ignore the power game and get weak you get invaded and your people suffer

Even if it's not necessary for survival, we should be doing it anyway

Agressively.

I disagree

We should always be looking to gain the superior position over other countries.

That best serves the people and state

I disagree I think it's important to be in a position to defend yourself but I disagree with power for powers sake

I thought you wanted to be in the best position for your people though?

I want my people to be free

They can be

We can still be aggressively influencing other countries abroad

I don't think it's necessary at the moment at least for the UK

Why? Now we need it more than ever

The UK is economically weakened and will struggle after Brexit

We need to be pushing HARD to mediate the damage we take

I agree there and we should stand for our people's interest but when you say aggressively it sounds like you mean something like using the millitary and I don't think that is necessary

We certainly should be looking to use the miltary

I completely disagree haha

That's one of the best tools we have

We have a high tech military, our economy benefits from war since we have a large arms export industry as well

can you provide an example ?