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

The International Political Thought of
Carl Schmitt
Are we experiencing, at the beginning of the third millennium, the emergence of
a new nomos, or order, of the earth? This book tackles this crucial question for
International Relations by offering the first critical analysis of Carl Schmitt’s
The Nomos of the Earth and examining how this seminal text, as well as
Schmitt’s international political thought more broadly, can help us understand
the epochal changes in the international system that have arisen from the collapse
of the ‘Westphalian’ international order.
Schmitt’s international political thought, the book argues, provides a stepping
stone for thinking about the contemporary crisis in the order and structure of
international society by offering an alternative history of international relations,
of the genesis, achievements and demise of the ‘Westphalian system’. Writing at
a time when he believed that this spatial, political and legal order (the nomos of
the earth) had collapsed, Schmitt highlighted the advent of many of the core
concerns of contemporary global politics, such as the weakening of the state, the
emergence of US ‘imperial’ hegemony, the prevalence of a global interventionist
liberalism and the transformation of terrorism and warfare more generally.
The contributors to the volume give further impetus to, and expand, the
nascent debate on the significance of Schmitt’s legal and political thought for
International Relations. Moreover, they use Schmitt’s thought to reflect on the
contemporary international political environment of the global ‘War on Terror’,
the crisis in international legality, US hegemony and the emergence of new
forms of warfare. In so doing, the book encourages a critique of, and a movement
beyond, Schmitt.
The International Political Thought of Carl Schmitt will be of keen interest to
students and scholars of international relations, politics, law and history.
Louiza Odysseos is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University
of Sussex, UK. Fabio Petito is Fellow in International Relations at the School
of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and also teaches International
Relations at the University ‘L’Orientale’ in Naples, Italy.