From Enemy to Xenos: the evolution of a Schmittian category

Abstract

The concept of the Enemy is certainly one of the most distinctive within Schmitt’s theory, but to what extent does it represent nowadays a practical political category? Given the dramatic differences that exist between Schmitt’s times and the present days, is the concept of the Enemy an effective tool to scrutinise the problem of the Other in contemporary societies or does it create the risk of obscuring the analysis rather than illuminating it? In order to investigate this question, I will briefly describe the concept of the Enemy itself and compare it with cognate ones offered by Girard and Bauman, against the background of the nature of today’s society. On that basis I will make two intimations, one descriptive and the other normative: 1) the Enemy (along with its cognate concepts) does not adequately frame the political problem of the Other as it currently stands and we must find an effective alternative; 2) the only way to overcome the political problem that the Other currently represents is a more open approach towards the outsider, the basis of which can be found in Judith Butler’s political ethics.