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How Has European Identity Been Defined, Theorised And How Has European Identity Been Defined, Theorised and Instrumentalised by New Far-Right Movements By Calum Fisher Universiteit van Amsterdam Student Number: 11774754 European Studies: Identity and Integration 2017-2018 Supervisor: Dr. Krisztina Lajosi-Moore Second Reader: Dr. Yolanda Rodríguez Pérez Table of Contents: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 3 1 Background ................................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Globalisation and the Resistance of Nationalism ................................................................................. 6 1.2 Immigration, Integration and the Re-Emergence of Nationalism ........................................................ 9 2 Methodology and Aims .............................................................................................................................. 14 2.1 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Aims ................................................................................................................................................... 17 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW ................................ 19 1 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................................. 19 1.1 Useful Terminology ............................................................................................................................ 20 2 Definitions and Theories of Identity ......................................................................................................... 21 2.1 National Identity versus European Identity ........................................................................................ 22 2.2 Contested Views ................................................................................................................................. 28 2.3 Instrumentalising Identity ................................................................................................................... 31 2.4 Metapolitics ........................................................................................................................................ 33 CHAPTER 1: HOW IS EUROPEAN IDENTITY DEFINED, THEORISED AND INSTRUMENTALISED BY GENERATION IDENTITY? .............................................. 35 1 What is Generation Identity? .................................................................................................................... 35 2 How Does Generation Identity Define and Theorise Identity? .............................................................. 38 2.1 How does Generation Identity Instrumentalise Identity? ................................................................... 44 CHAPTER 2: GENERATION IDENTITY AND ARKTOS MEDIA .............................. 49 1 What is Arktos Media and What Contributions Does it make to the Field of Far-Right Identity Theorisation? ........................................................................................................................................................ 49 2 What Role Does Arktos Media Play in Facilitating Generation Identity’s Process of Identity Instrumentalisation? ............................................................................................................................................ 53 3 How, and Through What Processes, Does Arktos Media Facilitate Identitarian Discourse? ............ 56 CHAPTER 3: THE GLOBAL IDENTITARIAN SPHERE AND IDENTITARIAN HEGEMONY ......................................................................................................................... 65 1 How Extensive is Friberg and Spencer’s Network and What Influence Does the Identitarian Movement Have Within it? ................................................................................................................................. 65 2 How Can the Identitarian Movement’s Aim of Achieving Cultural Hegemony be Analysed and Evaluated? ............................................................................................................................................................ 74 2.1 Obstacles and Barriers to Identitarian Hegemony .............................................................................. 81 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................... 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 90 2 Introduction What, exactly, is European identity? It appears there are as many interpretations of this subject as there are Europeans, divided along many sets of lines including separatism versus integrationism, liberal democracy versus illiberal democracy, and secular modernism versus Christian traditionalism, amongst others. European identity plays a subordinate role to national identity, with 51% of Europeans feeling a sense of attachment to ‘Nation first, then Europe,’ and while those who identify solely with the nation outnumber those who identify solely with Europe by 39% to 8%, it is becoming an ever more important and contentious issue amongst citizens, as a society changed by cosmopolitanism and European migration, which have lowered barriers and blurred boundaries, has developed a definite sense of an overarching, European identity.1 This sense of ‘European’ identity has also entered the consciousness of a wave of new far-right movements (FRMs), whose approach of simultaneously adopting a pan-European and hyper- regionalist viewpoint based on a bottom-up interpretation of European Identity as an inherent, hereditary and exclusive characteristic sets them apart from previous far-right movements such as Nazism and Fascism which saw the unification of a civilisation of Europe as achievable only via the enforcement of a top-down system of governance. While the ideology proposed by these new, Identitarian movements is not novel – they are the descendants of Fascist thought and count many neo-Nazis amongst their ranks – the centralisation of ‘European identity’ to their beliefs enables them to collaborate across European borders. National branches of this pan-European movement support each other’s cultures and traditions, enabling them to claim to be the ‘true protectors’ of European diversity, while still appealing to a very nationalistic support base.2 In targeting this support base, Identitarianism presents Europe as a patchwork 1 Camelia Cmeciu and Mădălina Manolache, “A Narrative Approach to Europe’s Identity Crisis.” The European Legacy (2018): 1-2. 2 Markus Willinger, Generation Identity: A Declaration of War Against the ‘68ers, trans. David Schreiber (London: Arktos, 2013): 87. 3 quilt, with each square representing the local, regional and national identities of each European country, each contributing a distinct, equal and permanent contribution to the blanket of European Identity. While the wool from which each square was woven, they say, was shorn from the same sheep, the many hands, dyes and looms used to form and colour them has given each square distinct, inimitable patterns and styles that distinguish each one from the rest. If the coloured fibres of two squares begin to mix or are contaminated by outside fibres, they claim, the integrity of the entire blanket is compromised. Thus, a duality of thought is present in Identitarianism in which the preservation of national cultural difference is seen as a way of protecting continental cultural similarity. This duality of thought can be seen in ideas they promote such as ‘a Europe of Nations’ or ‘a Europe of 100 flags’ in which Europe is conceptualised as an organic civilisation of many nations, each with its own ‘identity, culture and collective beliefs, its own spirit’ as well as a ‘pan-European spirit’ that bonds them together.3 Moreover, this ‘European spirit’ has been adopted by American White Supremacists, whose interpretation of Identitarianism deterritorialises and ethnicises European Identity. 1 Background As the world has opened up and Liberalism and its universal values have spread, Liberal Democracy counts nations from Europe and North America amongst its ranks while European nations have become unified under the European Union, ushering in the age of globalism. Cosmopolitanism, that is, a ‘fluid’ and ‘thin’ type of identification that occurs alongside, not in place of, national identity, has flourished within Europe, enabling national cultural elements 3 Roy Norman Pedersen, One Europe, 100 Nations. (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1992). 4 to cross over borders to create shared cognitions of belonging to an overarching European identity.4 However, globalisation has connotations of universalised interests and traditions emanating from the political and economic culture of the West, representing a homogenisation of traditions and cultures which can highlight – or even instigate – strong feelings of attachment or re-identification with one’s own nation-state.5 It is also a target for the far-right, who make use of a Conservative Revolution-style Romantic rhetoric that portrays globalisation as a vehicle for multiculturalism that stimulates ‘a degradation of values and culture’ within Europe.6 Matthew
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