The French Revolution was a complex historical event, and its intellectual foundations were likewise complex. It is a mistake to reduce it to the Jacobin terror. It was a liberal revolution whose ideals sprang from the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition.
Since Putin’s war against Ukraine, the West once again has a clear enemy. Many now recall Carl Schmitt, who saw the essence of the political in the distinction between friend and enemy. But that is too simplistic.
Does trade among nations promote peace? The liberal-minded Enlightenment affirmed this under the phrase “doux commerce.” At present, however, we are witnessing how economically closely linked nations are at war with each other.
