ABSTRACT
This chapter offers evidence for the contradiction between this interpretation and the actual Hobbesian approach to international relations. Noel Malcolm has followed the first line of interpretation, shows that the standard portrayal of Hobbess theory of international relations appears to be based, for the most part, on a handful of passages in one or two of his works and even few passages have been misunderstood. Carl Schmitts approach to international relations still exerts a fascination and claims a right to impose its mark on the reading of Hobbess place in the history of war and state. Gnter Maschke is part of a broader interpretation of international relations based on sovereign territorial states at war with one another. The difficulty, however, rests with the fact that this geopolitical interpretation of Hobbess state and nature decidedly ignores the fact that Hobbes is not an imperialist thinker and his vision of international relations rests on a universalistic theory of the laws of nature.
