Offering a concise account of Schmitt's life and career along with discussions of his key concepts, Muller explains why interest in the political theorist continues. He analyzes Schmitt's post-1945 writings on international order, partisanship, and terror. He explores in detail the responses of liberal thinkers to Schmitt's challenging legacy and the highly ingenious (and often problematic) defenses of liberalism they devised. Muller offers a range of insights into the liberalization of political thinking in post-authoritarian societies and the persistent vulnerabilities and blind spots of certain strands of Western liberalism. Finally, he also assesses the current uses of Schmitt's thought in debates on globalization and the quest for a liberal world order.