The Crisis of Political Form The Question of Space in the Work of Carl Schmitt Rory Henry Rowan Royal Holloway, University of London PhD. Department of Geography 1 This thesis is dedicated to Peter and Briad Rowan, who went far beyond the call of duty in support of its completion, and Eva Kenny, who has always reminded me that friendship is infinitely more powerful than enmity. 2 Declaration of Authorship I Rory Rowan hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: ________________________ 3 Abstract This thesis examines the role of space in the work of the German legal and political theorist Carl Schmitt (1888-1983). It has two fundamental aims. Firstly, to identify what role spatial concepts play in Schmitt's work. Second, to examine what relevance Schmitt’s spatial thought might have for thinking about the relation between space and politics today. In response to the first question the thesis argues that spatial concepts occupy a structural position throughout Schmitt’s work that has thus far been overlooked. The central claim is that Schmitt understands political order, in the absence of necessary foundations, to be fundamentally grounded upon the division of space. The division of space allows political relations to be managed within a formal framework. However, Schmitt understood this relationship between spatial division and political relations to be in crisis in the twentieth century. The thesis traces Schmitt's various attempts to address this crisis first within the horizon of the state and then on the basis of new global spatial divisions beyond the state form. In answering the second question the thesis argues that in order to assess the contemporary relevance of Schmitt's spatial thought it must be contextualized in relation to both the central concerns of his work as a whole and the political contexts within which it emerged. This is of particular importance in judging how Schmitt's involvement with National Socialism bears on the contemporary value of his thought. In conclusion the thesis argues that whilst a critical awareness of his troubling past is necessary in approaching Schmitt's work it none-the-less raises fundamental questions of enduring relevance. 4 Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................6 Chapter 1: The Return of Carl Schmitt....................................................10 (1) A Reactionary’s Renaissance: Schmitt’s Anglophone ‘Revival’............................ 10 (2) A Spectre is Haunting Liberalism ........................................................................... 16 (3) The Exception as Norm: Carl Schmitt in the Post-911 World................................ 32 (4) An Open Space: Methodology and Contribution.................................................... 54 Chapter 2: Locating Schmitt......................................................................61 (1) The Intellectual Adventurer: Biography and Career............................................... 61 (2) The Bricoleur: Intellectual Context......................................................................... 80 Chapter 3: Knowing Your Enemy / Reading Schmitt ...........................100 (1) Nazism: Crown Jurist or Benito Cereno?.............................................................. 100 (2) Anti-Semitism: The “Jewish Complex”................................................................ 112 (3) A Critical Schmittology ........................................................................................ 123 Chapter 4: Political Form / Spatialising the Political ............................124 (1) The Father of All Things: The Primacy of The Political ...................................... 125 (2) Political Conditions: Ontology, Anthropology, History ....................................... 133 (3) Political Form: Secularisation & Spatialisation .................................................... 140 (4) The State as Political Form: Authority, Association, Idea.................................... 149 (5) Towards a Crisis of the Political Form.................................................................. 156 Chapter 5: The Crisis of the State / Despatialising the Political...........158 (1) State Crisis............................................................................................................. 158 (2) The Age of Neutralisations and Depoliticisations................................................. 160 (3) Enemies of the State: Positivism, Pluralism, Universalism .................................. 165 (4) The Total Eclipse of the State ............................................................................... 177 (5) Beyond the State: Respatialising the Political....................................................... 184 Chapter 6: The Nomos of the Earth / Spatial Order .............................189 (1) Space in Schmitt’s Late Work............................................................................... 189 (2) The Nomos of the Earth ........................................................................................ 191 (3) Nomos as Concept: Order & Orientation.............................................................. 194 (4) Nomos as Institution: Jus Publicum Europaeum................................................... 208 (5) Collapsing Nomos: Spatial Chaos......................................................................... 219 (6) The New Nomos of the Earth?.............................................................................. 227 Chapter 7: New Political Forms / Großraum and Partisan ..................232 (1) Respatialising the Political.................................................................................... 232 (2) Großraum .............................................................................................................. 233 (3) The Partisan........................................................................................................... 247 (4) The End of Schmitt’s World ................................................................................. 252 Conclusion: Limits & Engagements ........................................................254 (1) Schmitt and Political Geography........................................................................... 256 (2) Limits .................................................................................................................... 259 (3) Engagements ......................................................................................................... 263 References ..................................................................................................269 5 Introduction My interest in Carl Schmitt was born of war. Like many others, I first encountered Carl Schmitt’s work in the middle years of the last decade, at the height of the ‘war on terror’. It seemed during this period that international order as I understood it was crumbling. What was most disturbing was that liberal states were themselves emerging as the enemies of a peaceful world and the rule of law. The language of democracy and the instruments of international law were precisely the means by which imperial power was unfurling order from within. Blunt contradictions within the situation seemed to exhaust established avenues of protest and warp the old coordinates of critique. Schmitt’s thought appeared to cut through this fog. His work seemed to speak directly to the tensions of the moment and hit precisely on the raw mechanisms of power that had suddenly been revealed. He drew stark conceptual distinctions yet remained sensitive to the ultimate contingency of all norms and institutions. His stringent realism seemed to dissolve liberal pieties exposing the perverse logic of state sovereignty and the duplicity of humanitarianism. The promise of enigmatic new paths out of a politically deadlocked present seemed to be held within. Crucially, Schmitt’s analysis of political space appeared to offer a key to unlocking the strange fusion of brute material force, ideological spin and technological virtuality that had to come to characterize the reigning global disorder. But Schmitt was an uncertain friend. His sharp insights grew muddy in the light of his past, and slipped through the fingers the harder one tried to grasp them. Concepts that first seemed like incisive critical tools became double-edged swords that conceded too much ground to opponents. But whilst he shifted shape and frequently disappointed, Schmitt raised questions that were neither easy to answer nor dismiss. I have certainly not been alone in looking to this controversial figure for critical orientation. The last decade has been witness to an explosion of interest in Schmitt’s 6 thought in a variety of Anglophone debates. In Chapter 1, I examine how scholars from a number of disciplines, including Political Theory, International Law, International Relations and, more recently, Geography, have turned to Schmitt in search of insights to help grasp the nature of the contemporary global politics. During the ‘war on terror’ Schmitt’s theorization of the relationship between sovereign power and exceptional governance became a frequent source of reference for those attempting to understand the mechanisms of state power operating in extra-territorial prisons such as Guantanamo Bay. Further,