The International Political Thought of Carl Schmitt: Terror, Liberal ...

9 The re-emerging notion of Empire
and the influence of Carl
Schmitt’s thought
Danilo Zolo
The reemerging notion of empire
In this chapter I intend to present a critical analysis of the contemporary use of
the notion of ‘empire’. I also propose, on the basis of Carl Schmitt’s philosophy
of international law, a specific use of the notion of ‘empire’ to denote the United
States’ global hegemony as ‘imperial’.
The revival of the notion of ‘empire’ within Western political theory is in my
view evidence of the present profound transformation of international arrangements.
There is an evolutionary crisis of the nation-state that is leading to the
erosion or alteration of some of its traditional functions, as well as to its taking
on new significant tasks. At the same time, we are witnessing a phenomenon of
dislocation and concentration of a large part of states’ sovereign powers in
favour of new international actors: military, political, economic and communicative.
Among these subjects there are a few ‘great powers’, first of all the United
States of America, which obtain increasing advantages – as great powers, not as
nation-states – through the systemic mechanisms of distribution of power and
wealth. These mechanisms are scarcely affected by the formal prerogatives of
state sovereignty.
These phenomena – paralleling the increasing integration of international
factors that is being called ‘globalisation’ (Zolo 2004a) – were accelerated in the
late twentieth century after the end of the Cold War, the demise of the bi-polar
world order, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the United
States as the only world superpower. And they were further accelerated after 11
September 2001 and the US-led wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.
A methodological caution
I think a methodological caution is required about the overall meaning of the
term ‘empire’ in its current use within Western political culture. In this lexical
context the term ‘empire’ takes on a semantic value and a symbolic scope that
tend to crystallise in a real paradigm. Besides individual variations, this imperial
paradigm points to a political form with three morphological and functional
features.