Carl Schmitt Today by Alain De Benoist

Carl Schmitt Today by Alain De Benoist

Few names, apart from that of Leo Strauss, are invoked more often when discussing the American response to terrorism in recent years than that of Carl Schmitt. Schmitt, who was part of the German school of political thought known as the 'Conservative Revolution, ' is widely regarded as having been one of the greatest legal minds of the twentieth century. He famously asserted that the most important function of the sovereign of a nation is not the drafting or enforcement of law, but rather his ability to decide when the law should be suspended in an emergency, and likewise his power to declare who the 'friend' and 'enemy' of a community is at any given moment. Alain de Benoist critiques those who claim Schmitt as an inspiration behind the American 'neoconservative' movement that held sway during the administration of President George W. Bush, showing that the politics of the 'war on terror' do not actually reflect Schmitt's ideas, in that American lack of respect for the traditional rules of war, and its determination to portray its enemies as embodiments of absolute evil rather than as representatives of legitimate polities, renders contemporary American politics thoroughly un-Schmittian. Benoist then goes on to analyse recent history from Schmitt's standpoint, showing that the efforts of the United States have been intended to preserve its global hegemony, whereas Schmitt believed that the world was developing into a multipolar one where many powers, rather than a single power, would dominate, a trend which is clearly at work in our time. Benoist demonstrates that Carl Schmitt was therefore a much greater visionary than the American neoconservatives, who failed to understand the geopolitical forces at work today. Alain de Benoist is the leading philosopher behind the European 'New Right' movement (a label which de Benoist himself rejects, perceiving himself to not fit into the usual Left/Right dichotomy), a metapolitical school of thought which he helped to found in France in 1968 with the establishment of GRECE (Research and Study Group for European Civilisation). He continues to write and give lectures and interviews. He lives in Paris. Arktos has previously made available his books The Problem of Democracy and Beyond Human Rights, both published in 2011.

Alain de Benoist is a key figure in the European 'New Right' movement, which began in France in 1968 with the founding of GRECE (Research and Study Group for European Civilization), a metapolitical school of thought. Although though he rejects the moniker 'New Right' for himself, considering himself as falling outside the normal Left/Right split, he remains its prominent representative to this day. He has fought for Europeans' right to keep their identity in the face of multiculturalism, and he has opposed immigration, preferring the preservation of national cultures to forced integration of immigrant populations. Benoist has been dogged by unfounded charges of radicalism throughout his career, but they have had no effect on his productivity or ambition. He has written hundreds of books and essays on immigration, religion, philosophy, and political theory, among other themes.

With his book Vu de droite (View from the Right), he got the Grand Prize de l'Essai from the Académie Française in 1978. He is also the editor-in-chief of the journals Nouvelle Ecole and Krisis, and his work has appeared in Mankind Quarterly, Telos, The Scorpion, The Occidental Quarterly, and Tyr, among other publications. He has had a huge impact on the intellectual and ideological understanding of the European political situation over the last four decades. His books The Crisis of Democracy (2011), Beyond Human Rights (2011), Manifesto for a European Renaissance (2012), Carl Schmitt Today (2013), and On the Edge of the Abyss (2015) were previously published by Arktos.

He continues to write, speak, and do interviews. He is based in Paris.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781907166396
ISBN 10	1907166394
Title	Carl Schmitt Today
Author	Alain De Benoist
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Arktos Media
Year published	2013-05-17
Number of pages	110
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.