In this paper, we introduce the main strengths of Raymond Aron’s political judgment concerning the “friend-enemy” polarity. In light of that question, we revisit Aron’s political philosophy in order to show its “intention” and the way it accounts for to the tension between domestic politics and international relations, norm and exception, the “meaning” of politics (friendship) and the permanent possibility of war (enmity). Aron’s critical analysis of Carl Schmitt’s criterion of the “political” turns out to be a particularly revealing example of Aron’s approach. The article then identifies the “lessons” to be drawn from the Aronian outlook concerning the understanding of the nature of the political world, its changing configurations and its genuine seriousness.