Elisabetta Brighi is a Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Studies, POLIS, University of Cambridge, UK. She is the author of Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics and International Relations (2013) and Pragmatism in International Relations (2009), co-edited with Harry Bauer.Antonio Ceralla is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. His recent publications include: 'Religion and political form: Carl Schmitt's genealogy of politics as critique of Jürgen Habermas's postsecular discourse', Review of International Studies; 'Terrorismo: Storia e Analisi di un concetto' (2009); 'Forme della violenza nel sistema contemporaneo' (2010). He is currently co-editing and contributing to the Special Issue of the Journal of International Political Theory on 'Mimetic Theory and International Studies'.

Why is politics so closely tied to death and destruction, and why is religion so often the midwife of sacrifice and ritual murder? This book addresses these questions, relying chiefly on the insights of René Girard's mimetic theory, Carl Schmitt's reflections on sovereignty, and Giorgio Agamben's notion of "homo sacer". Bringing together a remarkable collection of essays written by leading experts, the book ends appropriately with a chapter devoted to the present time defined as "mimetic post-modernity or "the age of panic".

• Introduction: The Power of Sacrifice: René Girard and the Political Antonio Cerella (University of Central Lancashire)Chapter 1. Aristotle on Mimesis and Violence: Things Hidden since the Foundation of Literary TheoryArata Takeda (University of Chicago & Free University of Berlin)Chapter 2. René Girard and Thomas Aquinas on Prophecy and the Purging of the Notion of JusticePaul M. Rogers (University of Cambridge)Chapter 3. Unlikely Twins? Machiavelli and Girard on Violence, Crisis and the Origins of the StateErnesto Gallo (The Open University, UK)Chapter 4. René Girard, Human Nature and Political ConflictKent Enns (Humber College, Toronto, Canada)Chapter 5. Spinoza, Girard and the Possibility of a Purely Immanent DemocracyStéphane Vinolo (Regent's University of London)Chapter 6. René Girard's Mimetic Theory: An 'Anti-Political Theology'?Michael Kirwan (Heythrop College, University of London)Chapter 7. A 'Theoretical Double': Violence, Religion and Social Order in Schmitt and GirardAndrea Salvatore (University of Rome – La Sapienza)Chapter 8. Mimesis and Sartre's Critique of Dialectical ReasonPaul Dumouchel (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan)Chapter 9. The Sacred and the Secular: René Girard and Gianni Vattimo on Modernity and Violence Pierpaolo Antonello (University of Cambridge)Chapter 10. The Myth of Origin: Archaeology and History in the Work of Agamben and Girard Antonio Cerella (University of Central Lancashire)Chapter 11. The Age of Panic. On Mimetic Post-ModernityEmanuele Antonelli (University of Turin) Index