Geo-Political Spaces: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Carl Schmitt(Ideas beyond Borders)

This book focuses on the geographical and geopolitical sources for Carl Schmitt’s multilayered political thinking in order to uncover the relation between the political and the geographical aspects of his concept of space from 1939 to 1950. The aim is therefore to open up a field of enquiry, specifically to investigate Schmitt’s sources in the geographical and geopolitical literature inside and outside Germany in order to reconstruct the genealogy of his idea of space, territory and international order. In doing so, the contributors aim both to distinguish concepts that have generally been only vaguely defined in the literature on Schmitt, namely his idea of space, political territory and land, and to define more precisely the relationship between Schmitt's Großraum and the National Socialist Lebensraum. This book refers to, complements and goes beyond three different approaches – International Relations, geography and philology: First, in that it explores the genealogy of Schmitt’s concept of space by adopting a twofold methodology of intellectual history and philology; second, in that it considers the relevance of language in Schmitt’s discourse on power and space; third, in that it relates Schmitt’s thinking to the transnational literature on geopolitics and political geography. Geo - Political Spaces will appeal to academics and the well-informed public at large. It is also suitable for academic teaching, especially when it comes to historical theory, the concept of space or the history of political thought.

Table of Contents:
Part I: Conversations on Territory and Space Chapter 1 Ratzel’s ghost: On the biopolitical roots of Lebensraum and Großraum Claudio Minca and Matteo Proto Chapter 2 The Moral Economy of Space. Carl Schmitt, Raumtheorie, and the Apologetics of Aggression David Thomas Murphy Chapter 3 Carl Schmitt, Political Theology and the History of Political Thought Samuel Garrett Zeitlin Chapter 4 When it comes to the point, he says Großraum. Conversations and Encounters between Carl Schmitt and Heinrich Schmitthenner Ulrike Jureit Chapter 5 The Political at the Trial of History: Carl Schmitt and Otto Brunner on the Conundrum of the Modern State Isabella Consolati Chapter 6 Eschatological geopolitics: Taubes contra Schmitt Benedikt Korf Part II: Transnational Models of Political Spaces Chapter 7 Leadership and hegemony: Schmitt’s Landpowers-Seapowers dialectics Patricia Chiantera-Stutte Chapter 8 Monrovian Musings: Carl Schmitt’s Critique of American Empire and the Monroe Doctrine Marco Mariano Chapter 9 Rethinking Empires at the Sunset of the Eurocentric Paradigm: Karl Haushofer and Carl Schmitt’s Great Space Theory from a Global Perspective Nicola Bassoni Chapter 10 Carl Schmitt and the air war: looking for a katéchon Filippo Ruschi Chapter 11 Before astropolitics: Ratzel, Schmitt, and the question of cosmic colonisation Ian Klinke

About the Author :
Patricia Chiantera-Stutte teaches History of Political Thought in Bari. Her research deals with intellectual history, civilisationism, geopolitics populism and radical right,. Among her publications: with G. Borgognone Civilization. History of a Political Idea (2023), with U. Jureit, Denken im Raum (2021). Ulrike Jureit, Historian, Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture. Main areas of research: Social and cultural history of the 19th and 20th centuries, generational theory, history of violence, cultural concepts of memory. Amongst her publications: with P. Chiantera-Stutte (Hg.): Geographica Helvetica. 78(2023): Resonanz und Rezeption. Werk und Wirkung Friedrich Ratzels im internationalen Vergleich (2023), “Blonde Provinzen”. National socialist territorial and homogenization policies and the murderous consequences of their failure. In: Journal of urban history. 50 (2024)