Since his death, the writings of Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) have been debated, cited, and adopted by political and legal thinkers on both the left and right with increasing frequency, though not without controversy given Schmitt’s unwavering support for National Socialism before and during World War II. In Perilous Futures, Peter Uwe Hohendahl calls for critical scrutiny of Schmitt’s later writings, the work in which Schmitt wrestles with concerns that retain present-day relevance: globalization, asymmetrical warfare, and the shifting international order. Hohendahl argues that Schmitt’s work seems to offer solutions to these present-day issues, although the ambiguity of his beliefs means that Schmitt’s later work is a problematic guide.
Focusing on works Schmitt published after the war—including The Nomos of the Earth, Theory of the Partisan and Political Theology II—as well as his posthumously published diaries, Hohendahl reads these works critically against the backdrop of their biographical and historical contexts, he charts the shift in Schmitt’s perspective from a German nationalist focus to a European and then international agenda, while attending to both the conceptual and theoretical continuities with his prewar work and addressing the tension between the specific circumstances in which Schmitt was writing and the later international appropriation. Crossing disciplines of history, political theory, international relations, German studies, and political philosophy, Hohendahl brings Schmitt’s later writings into contemporary discourse and forces us to reexamine what we believe about Carl Schmitt.
Table of Content
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Outlaw: Carl Schmitt’s Postwar Notebooks and Small Essays
2. Transition: The Concept of Großraum and Global Politics
3. The Fate of European Colonialism and Carl Schmitt’s New World Order
4. Revolutionary War and Absolute Enemy: Rereading Theory of the Partisan
5. The Return of Political Theology
6. Final Reflections: Is There a Usable Schmitt?
Notes
Index
About the author
Uwe Peter Hohendahl is Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. Among his many books are Building a National Literature; Reappraisals; and The Fleeting Promise of Art.
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