ABSTRACT
No new nomos of the earth can obtain without common agreement on the laws of war. Carl Schmitt understood this very well, which is why the concluding section of his book, The Nomos of the Earth, contains a chapter on ‘Transformation of the meaning of war’ and ends with a chapter on ‘War with modern means of destruction’. It is thus quite consistent that Schmitt concluded his treatise, ‘Theory of the Partisan’, with the statement: ‘The theory of the partisan flows into the question of the concept of the political, into the question of the real enemy and of a new nomos of the earth’ (Schmitt 1963b: own translation; see also 2004a: 78, 2004b: 68).2 These two works should be considered together, and in light of Der Begriff des Politischen (1963a), not only given the political situation today, but also and more importantly because Schmitt’s national and international political thinking belong together. His mature political thinking was always geopolitical.
