Janus's Gaze

Carl Schmitt and the Challenges of Interwar Internationalism. Against Weimar – Geneva – Versailles

“…In conclusion, Carlo Galli suggests that Schmitt was bound to a horizon that is 'no longer with us today', but his work still remains 'an important testimony to the decline of the jus publicum europaeum'. 89 There are of course those who would disagree and who approach international order through models clearly based on Schmitt's observations, on the left as well as on the right. 90 However, I think that Galli is correct in the observation that 'Schmitt's significance consists in his deconstruction of the juridico-political structure of the State', and that '[t]o grasp globalization, and to generate perspectives that help solve the political problems that confronts us, our thinking must begin where Schmitt's reflections end'.…”

“…90 However, I think that Galli is correct in the observation that 'Schmitt's significance consists in his deconstruction of the juridico-political structure of the State', and that '[t]o grasp globalization, and to generate perspectives that help solve the political problems that confronts us, our thinking must begin where Schmitt's reflections end'. 91 Against his own wishes, Schmitt illustrates how modern developments challenge and ultimately push politics beyond the state and into something new, something that his own conceptual apparatus is unable to chart. What Schmitt's critical understanding of the implications of interwar internationalism specifically shows is that the answers internationalist ideology provided were inadequate in relation to the challenges of the times.…”