Last war or a war to make the world safe for democracy: Violence and right in Hannah Arendt

Abstract

Paraphrased within the title of this text is a note Hannah Arendt made in August 1952. After reading Carl Schmitt’s Nomos der Erde, Arendt tries to confront Schmitt’s idea of a just war. In the text I attempt to reconstruct Arendt’s readings of differing political philosophy texts within the context of her thinking concerning the relationship between violence and power, force and law. Arendt’s refusal to accept the existence of violence which can "conquer" freedom and "create" right and democracy, brings contradiction to the great tradition of the followers of Marx, to whom Arendt undoubtedly belongs: how is and is revolutionary violence even possible and does violence as resistance to injustice bring justice?.

Keywords

• right
• law
• force
• violence
• revolution
• last war
• just war
• right forrevolution