On Schmitt and Space [Hardcover]

This book represents the first comprehensive study of the influential German legal and political thinker Carl Schmitts spatial thought, offering the first systematic examination from a Geographic perspective of one of the most important political thinkers of the twentieth century.

It charts the development of Schmitts spatial thinking from his early work on secularization and the emergence of the modern European state to his post war analysis of the spatial basis of global order and international law, whilst situating his thought in relation to his changing biographical and intellectual context, controversial involvement in Weimar politics and disastrous support for the Nazi regime. It argues that spatial concepts play a crucial structural role throughout Schmitts work, from his well-known analyses of sovereign power and states of exception to his often overlooked spatial history of modernity. Locating a fundamental relationship between space and the political lies at the core of his thought.

The book explores the critical insight that Schmitts spatial thought bears on some of the key political questions of the twentieth century whilst tracking his profound and enduring influence on key debates on sovereignty, international relations, war and the nature of world order at the start of the twenty first century.

Introduction 1. Writing Carl Schmitt  2. The Return of Carl Schmitt  3. Spatializing the Political  4. Liberal Leviathan  5. Nazi Behemoth  6. Gro?raum  7. Spatial Histories  8. A New Nomosof the Earth?  Conclusion

Minca and Rowan show in great detail that Schmitt was a deeply spatial thinker and argue very persuasively that his multi-layered spatial understanding of politics remains a source of useful insights in the 21st century. In the process, they also provide a model well worth emulating ofl3$