According to the great if controversial German jurist, Carl Schmitt, who also wrote eloquently on the laws of war and on world geopolitics, the relationship between the United States of America and the rest of the world is defined by its relationship to Europe. In 1832, runs his argument, Washington proclaimed the so-called Monroe doctrine. Named after President James Munroe who authored it, the doctrine holds that European powers should stay out of the Western hemisphere. It has been...