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

Against world unity 181
with industrial and economic interdependence and with a central power or Reich that
creates order, radiates its political idea and excludes alien military intervention into a
greater space’ (1997: 23). For an interesting discussion of Großraum theory in the
context of the dilemmas of Nazi occupation policy see Stirk (1999).
2 For a similar interpretation, which uses the comparison with Brzezinski’s articulation
of American power, see Rasch (2003). For Schmitt, however, the true reality of
power cannot be reduced to any of these social analyses, rather it can only find an
appropriate response in the theoretical articulation of the notion of nomos, based on
the three processes of appropriation, distribution and production (Schmitt 2003b,
2003c).
3 Ulmen observes that Schmitt saw the proclamation of the Truman doctrine (that the
industrial development of the earth was America’s goal) as the original document in
this prospective new nomos of the earth (2003: 30).
4 For an attempt to reformulate a new theory of imperialism see Hardt and Negri
(2000). For a discussion of this attempt in an IR context see Barkawi and Laffey
(2002) and the replies by Alex Callinicos, Martin Shaw and R. B. J. Walker in the
next issue of Millennium (2002, 32, no. 2). For a discussion of the contemporary use
of the notion of ‘empire’ with reference to Schmitt’s thought see Chapter 9 by Danilo
Zolo in this volume.
5 For two opposite views from the perspective of the contemporary debate on US grand
strategy see Kagan (2003) and Kupchan (2002).
6 For a critical overview of the problem of definition of globalization as well as an
analysis of the implications for international relations, see Scholte (2000).
7 There exists a burgeoning literature known as ‘critical geopolitics’, which has, in my
view, some points of convergence with Schmitt’s reflections. See in particular Ó
Tuathail (1996). For a similar Schmittian-inspired analysis of globalization from the
perspective of political philosophy see Galli (2001).
8 Exemplifications of this trend in International Relations and Political Theory are
Fukuyama (1992), Held (1995), Habermas (2001), Linklater (1998), Beck (2006). To
prove this point it is significant that even an author such as Amitai Etzioni, who is
strongly associated with communitarian positions, when applying his communitarian
approach to international affairs in his last book ends up arguing in favour of a global
government (2004). For a Schmittian-inspired critique of the cosmopolitan project see
Rasch (2000) and in a more indirect way the work of Zolo (1997, 2002a, 2002b).
9 ‘Teleological explanations explain by reference to an end or purpose toward which a
system is directed’ (Wendt 1999: 496).
10 In the original Spanish version of this essay ‘La Unidad del Mundo’ Schmitt argues
briefly for the contemporary possibility of a Christian conception of history in terms
of the ‘great historical parallel’ and the doctrine of Katechon. Cf. also Dufferová
(2004).
11 For the centrality of the apocalyptic dimension in the thought of Schmitt see Taubes
(2003).
12 Palaver suggests that this thought was not completely alien to Schmitt:
Religion will also play an important role in the new and pluralistic nomos of the
earth. When in 1962 Schmitt lectured on the future of world order, he claimed that
in view of the dominance of modern technology all Großräume would be a function
of the spiritual substance of those people who help create this new order.
Beside culture, race, language and national heritage it is religion that will contribute
to this spiritual substance.
(1995: 113)