Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Falk, Hjalmar

Titel

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

Ist Teil von

• Global intellectual history (Abingdon, England), 2022-07, Vol.7 (4), p.765-783

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Quelle

Taylor & Francis Journals Auto-Holdings Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In the aftermath of World War I, liberal internationalist politicians and intellectuals attempted to lay the ground for a new world order, based on trade and law. Their ambitious project entailed the building of international institutions, as well as the formal outlawing of war with the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928. Among the fiercest critics of the liberal internationalist project of the interwar years was the near-infamous German jurist Carl Schmitt. Today, Schmitt's thought is regularly referenced as an inspiration behind twenty-first century anti-globalism and its attempts at reinforcing national sovereignty and 'take back control' from international institutions. However, Schmitt did not believe that a return to the principles of statehood from before World War I was possible. Rather than an order based on nineteenth century principles regarding the nation state, he advocated the formation of a new political world order that would be able to face the forces of modernity and internationalism. In this article, I chart the challenges of interwar internationalism as Schmitt saw them, together with his alternative solution. Schmitt's alternative entails a recognition of how international and national order has become entangled in a complex way, forcing the rethinking of traditional conceptions of statehood.