A provocative question is gaining traction among foreign policy analysts: could the chaotic foreign policy of US President Donald Trump be inadvertently reviving a geopolitical vision first championed by a notorious Nazi legal theorist? The actions of his administration, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, have sparked debate over parallels with Carl Schmitt's concept of a world divided into exclusive spheres of influence, or 'great spaces'.
The Schmittian Vision: A World of Dominant Empires
The theory in question originates from Carl Schmitt, infamously known as the Nazis' 'crown jurist'. Outraged by Germany's post-WWI humiliation, Schmitt rejected international law as a victor's tool. In April 1939, he delivered a pivotal lecture in Kiel, proposing the world be organised into 'great spaces' (Großraum). Each would be dominated by a central empire, or 'Reich', radiating its influence over smaller nations in its orbit while rigorously excluding 'spatially alien powers'.
Schmitt envisaged Nazi Germany as the heart of a European great space, shielded from Anglo-American interference. His ideology was laced with virulent antisemitism, viewing 'world Jewry' as a universalising force hostile to such imperial blocs. While often linked to Hitler's ambitions, the concept also found echoes in Imperial Japan's 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere'. Ultimately, Schmitt's vision failed with the Allied victory, and he was disgraced after 1945, though his ideas retained a dark intellectual allure.
Trump's Actions: A Chaotic Alignment with Spheres of Influence?
Fast forward to 2026, and Schmitt's ideas are being re-examined. Observers point to a series of Trump administration actions that suggest a possible, if uncoordinated, shift towards a spheres-of-influence model. Key developments include:
- The release of a new US National Security Strategy in 2025 emphasising hemispheric priority.
- The military raid on Venezuela and the arrest of its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
- Expansionist rhetoric concerning Greenland, Panama, Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba.
- An apparent indulgence towards Vladimir Putin's Russia, including a willingness to impose territorial losses on Ukraine.
This pattern has led some to speculate that we are witnessing a de facto partition of the globe between Trump, Putin, China's Xi Jinping, and potentially India's Narendra Modi. Schmitt's ideas have long found advocates in Moscow and Beijing; the Russian Eurasianist Alexander Dugin, a key influence on Putin, is a noted partisan of Schmittian thought, advocating for a Russian-led space free of 'alien' Western influence.
Expert Analysis: Narcissism, Not Fascist Strategy
However, according to Brendan Simms, Director of the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge University, interpreting Trump as a strategic adherent of Schmitt is likely mistaken. While Trump has explicitly invoked the 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine to prioritise the Americas, his actions lack the consistency of a grand Schmittian design.
Simms argues Trump operates firmly within an expansive American tradition that demands global primacy, not mutual recognition of rival spheres. Evidence contradicts strategic collusion: the US has clobbered Iran, obliterated Russian air-defence systems in Venezuela, interdicted Russian tankers in European waters with British help, and, under Trump's watch, the CIA supported crippling Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure.
'Trump is not a fascist but a narcissist,' Simms concludes. He will not tolerate other equal powers. While Schmitt would feel vindicated in his belief in Anglo-Saxon 'hypocrisy'—projecting power globally while denying others the same right—the current US president's chaotic actions are driven by personal whim, not the cold, strategic logic of a Nazi jurist. The world may be fracturing, but not according to any theorist's orderly blueprint.
