A Political Mythology of World Order

World order is once again a matter of broad discussion and has entered influential critical theory with Hardt and Negri and Giorgio Agamben. A key reference has been Carl Schmitt's international thought, particularly his concept of nomos. Rather than address Schmitt's historical jurisprudence of international law, which has been done elsewhere, the present article examines the role of philology and mythology in his international thought. Such an approach reveals the considerable power of the concept of nomos and the intelligibility afforded by his striking account of it in terms of the elements of land, sea and air. Schmitt's jurisprudence proves to be inseparable from his approaches to language and mythology. This mythology also indicates significant ethical as well as intellectual problems in Schmitt's work, not least stemming from his association with Nazism and his anti-Jewish statements during the 1930s. This article argues that mythology and philology are both necessary to the intellectual task of making world order thinkable and map-able, and form conditions of global political action and decisive authority. It recommends, however, an ethos of modesty and plurality that remains aware of the dangers of drawing political consequences from the mythological inscriptions upon the earth.