Schmitt's Friend-Enemy Distinction and the War on Terror

Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political (1932) has been hugely influential on the left as well as the right of political debate despite the fact that its author joined the Nazi Party shortly after its publication. David explores the origins of Schmitt’s ideas in the debates about the Weimar Republic and examines his critique of liberal democracy. He asks what Schmitt’s distinction between friend and enemy has to teach us about democratic politics today.

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Going Deeper:

• Jan-Werner Mueller, A Dangerous Mind: CarlSchmitt in Post-War European Thought (2003)
• Tamsin Shaw, ‘William Barr: The Carl Schmitt ofOur Time,’ New York Review of Books (2020)
• Chang Che, ‘The Nazi Inspiring China’s Communists,’ The Atlantic (2020)
• (Audio): Carl Schmitt on Liberalism 

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