Negotiating the End of the World
Kant, Schmitt, and the Global Climate Struggle
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 19. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-5095-7276-2 (ISBN)
Description
Behind the headlines, a struggle between two opposing philosophical visions has shaped the course of international efforts to save the planet from global warming. The liberal cosmopolitanism of the great Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant has been up against the darker vision of an authoritarian global order of great power rivals developed by Carl Schmitt, 'Crown Jurist of the Third Reich'.
Clive Hamilton shows how the influence of Schmitt's once-taboo ideas has recently spread around the world - in Trump's America, in Xi Jinping's China, and in Europe with the rise of right-wing populism. His book maps how the actions of these three great powers have defined the course of global climate negotiations.
The Kantian vision, best represented by the European Union, has common sense on its side - a threat to everyone that can be solved by collective responses. In practice, however, UN agreements have triggered resistance from surging anti-globalist forces influenced by the Nazi jurist's ideas, a world defined by friends and enemies and where weaker states submit to powerful ones.
As the Earth hurtles towards a hot and perilous future, which of these worldviews prevails, Kant's or Schmitt's, could determine humanity's fate.
Clive Hamilton shows how the influence of Schmitt's once-taboo ideas has recently spread around the world - in Trump's America, in Xi Jinping's China, and in Europe with the rise of right-wing populism. His book maps how the actions of these three great powers have defined the course of global climate negotiations.
The Kantian vision, best represented by the European Union, has common sense on its side - a threat to everyone that can be solved by collective responses. In practice, however, UN agreements have triggered resistance from surging anti-globalist forces influenced by the Nazi jurist's ideas, a world defined by friends and enemies and where weaker states submit to powerful ones.
As the Earth hurtles towards a hot and perilous future, which of these worldviews prevails, Kant's or Schmitt's, could determine humanity's fate.
Reviews / Votes
"The global backlash against climate policy is fuelled by rising geopolitical discord, illiberalism, and economic nationalism. Hamilton's powerful book provides an unflinching account of the darker intellectual forces that are undermining the liberal international order and threatening the collective fight against global warming."Robert Falkner, London School of Economics and Political Science
"Not only does Hamilton compellingly cast international climate politics as mired in a clash of worldviews represented by Kant and Schmitt, he captures the wider rupture between incumbent liberal cosmopolitanism and the insurgent authoritarianism that has arisen to oppose it."
Steve Vanderheiden, University of Colorado
"Original, ambitious and equally impassioned"
The Ecologist
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-7276-2 (9781509572762)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
approx. 06/2026
1st Edition
Polity Press
€62.50
Not yet published
Person
Clive Hamilton is Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra.
Content
1. Defunct philosophers?
2. Kant's beautiful vision
Cosmopolitanism
A league of nations
A digression
Sovereignty and the climate
Atmospheric ethics
Interventions
3. Schmitt and the great powers
Schmitt the Nazi
Volk versus 'humanity'
Against liberalism
Grossraum and globalism
Nomos of the earth
Schmitt and the climate
Conspiratorial thinking
4. Europe, land of Kant
The Kantian model
The global climate leader
Neutralization in the EU
The ghost who walks
Visigrad: Schmitt central?
5. United States, in two minds
Contending worldviews
The culture of denial
The global of global warming
Exempting the USA
An American Grossraum?
The charismatic leader
Trump's Schmitts
Sex, gender and climate change
6. Schmitt fever in China
Kant out
Schmitt in
Civil society and NGOs
From Grossraum to tianxia
Ecological civilization
7. The negotiations from Rio to Copenhagen
From Rio to Kyoto
The Byrd-Hagel resolution
The Kyoto breakthrough
After Kyoto
The Copenhagen debacle
Copenhagen fall-out
8. Trends and influences
China: from defence to offence
Climate colonialism and climate justice
The Russian enigma
The Greta effect
9. From Copenhagen to Paris and after
Realignments
The 2014 US-China agreement
At Le Bourget
Top-down versus bottom up
Legally binding versus sovereign
After Paris
Dubai and the carbon club
10. When Schmitt prevails
A hot world
Adapting
Technofix
Collapse
2. Kant's beautiful vision
Cosmopolitanism
A league of nations
A digression
Sovereignty and the climate
Atmospheric ethics
Interventions
3. Schmitt and the great powers
Schmitt the Nazi
Volk versus 'humanity'
Against liberalism
Grossraum and globalism
Nomos of the earth
Schmitt and the climate
Conspiratorial thinking
4. Europe, land of Kant
The Kantian model
The global climate leader
Neutralization in the EU
The ghost who walks
Visigrad: Schmitt central?
5. United States, in two minds
Contending worldviews
The culture of denial
The global of global warming
Exempting the USA
An American Grossraum?
The charismatic leader
Trump's Schmitts
Sex, gender and climate change
6. Schmitt fever in China
Kant out
Schmitt in
Civil society and NGOs
From Grossraum to tianxia
Ecological civilization
7. The negotiations from Rio to Copenhagen
From Rio to Kyoto
The Byrd-Hagel resolution
The Kyoto breakthrough
After Kyoto
The Copenhagen debacle
Copenhagen fall-out
8. Trends and influences
China: from defence to offence
Climate colonialism and climate justice
The Russian enigma
The Greta effect
9. From Copenhagen to Paris and after
Realignments
The 2014 US-China agreement
At Le Bourget
Top-down versus bottom up
Legally binding versus sovereign
After Paris
Dubai and the carbon club
10. When Schmitt prevails
A hot world
Adapting
Technofix
Collapse