DOCSLIB.ORG

The Transatlantic 'Counterjihad' and the New Political Theology

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Transatlantic 'Counterjihad' and the New Political Theology ‘Green Crescent, Crimson Cross’: The Transatlantic ‘Counterjihad’ and the New Political Theology Ed Pertwee A thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, October 2017 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it ispermit- ted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 87,083 words. i Acknowledgements My deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Professor Chetan Bhatt, for his support and encouragement over the past four years. He has been a constant source of inspir- ation and I owe him an enormous intellectual debt. I am also grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council and to the London School of Economics for their generous financial support, without which this research would not have been possible. I spent several days exploring the Searchlight Archive at the University of Northampton, which was a treasure trove of information. My thanks go to Dan Jones, who was invaluable in helping me to navigate the collections. I am similarly grateful to those who took part in interviews for this project, many of whom also supplied me with resources and information. My thanks also go to all my friends and colleagues in the Department of Sociology and Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the LSE. ii Abstract This thesis explores the EuroAmerican ‘counterjihad’, a transnational field ofanti- Muslim political action that has grown significantly since it first became visible inthe mid-late 2000s. Its key symptoms have included ‘Defence Leagues’ and ‘Stop Islam- isation’ groups in various national contexts, grassroots mobilisations against mosques and minarets, campaigns to ‘ban the burqa’, as well as a very wide network of anti- Muslim online spaces. The thesis argues that the counterjihad can be seen as atransna- tional political movement, and its discursive, aesthetic, organisational and tactical repertoires are all critically explored. It will be shown that the heterogeneous polit- ical tendencies that constitute the counterjihad are united by a shared narrative of Western crisis, decline and impending catastrophe; several overlapping conspiratorial narratives that attempt to explain this predicament; and, finally, a spectrum of com- pensatory political projects that seek to reinvigorate a sense of Western civilizational and white ethnic identity in a post-Cold War context where those identities are in- creasingly contested. The thesis also argues that the counterjihad is one aspect ofa more general phenomenon: the striking reemergence in ‘late’ modernity of a number of ‘countermodern’ or ‘traditionalist’ political theologies. These new political theolo- gies overlap with, but are not identical to, the ones that flourished during the long crisis of ‘classical’ European modernity in the early twentieth century (notably, ‘clas- sical’ Italian Fascism and German National Socialism). Finally, the thesis considers the sociopolitical conditions that have fostered the reemergence of such phenomena today. iii Contents 1 Introduction: Fear and Loathing in Fortress Europe 1 I Contexts 19 2 Working in the ‘Grey Zone’: a note on methodology 20 Conclusion . 35 3 ‘The Appeals of Heredity’: on countermodernisms and political theologies 36 ‘A true present’ . 40 ‘Eternal land and eternal blood’ . 43 ‘Something existentially different and alien’ . 49 ‘Only a God can save us’ . 57 Conclusion . 65 4 ‘Peoples of the Forest, Tribes of the Desert’: countermodern ideologies and Islam prior to the counterjihad 67 At the ‘Eleventh Hour’ . 70 ‘A strategy of euphemism’ . 75 The ‘New Alliance’ . 81 ‘The threat that can bring us to power’ . 88 Conclusion . 96 II The Counterjihad 98 5 ‘Welcome to the Counterjihad’: anatomy of a political movement 99 iv The European Counterjihad . .101 The North American Counterjihad . 117 Networking the Counterjihad . 125 ‘Extreme but not fringe’ . 137 Conclusion . 141 6 ‘Almost Midnight in the West’: the Eurabian cultural apocalyptic 142 ‘The Second Fall of Rome’ . 147 ‘A stranger in my own country’ . 156 ‘The demographic timebomb’ . .166 ‘A recipe for cultural suicide’ . 172 Conclusion . 176 7 The ‘Red-Green Axis’: on counterjihadist demonology 177 ‘A global Dark Ages’ . 180 ‘A house burned down’ . 186 ‘The Eurabia Code’ . .190 ‘Civilization Jihad’ . 194 ‘They were to a man, Jewish’ . .196 Conclusion . 211 8 ‘Our Ancient Heritage’: the new political theology 214 ‘Taking care of your own’ . 217 ‘Holger Awakens’ . 223 On ‘Hallowed Ground’ . 231 ‘A declaration of pre-emptive war’ . 247 Conclusion . 251 III Conclusion 253 9 Conclusion: Fascism, Past and Pending 254 A Appendix: Websites Analysed 266 v B Appendix: Research Statement 271 Bibliography 273 vi List of Figures 1.1 Pegida UK demonstration, Birmingham, February 2016. 4 4.1 Hitler meets the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Berlin, 1941. 74 4.2 Cover of Derek Holland’s pamphlet The Political Soldier (1984). 85 4.3 Front cover of National Front News, March 1988. 87 4.4 British National Party anti-Islam campaign, autumn 2001. 89 4.5 Covers of British National Party magazine Identity after 9/11 and 7/7. 95 5.1 The online counterjihad network. .132 5.2 The online counterjihad network: key interfaces. .136 5.3 Donald Trump attends the launch of The United West, March 2011. 140 6.1 Graphic: ‘Stop Islamisation of Europe’. 153 6.2 Leaflet: The Islamic Timebomb. .154 6.3 Placard: ‘Cultural Enrichment?’. 162 6.4 Cartoon: ‘The Other Islamic Bomb’. 169 7.1 Graphic: ‘A House Burned Down’. 187 7.2 Stills from the film Political Correctness: the Frankfurt School. 204 7.3 William Lind and Donald Trump, April 2016. 212 8.1 English Defence League emblem and motto. 232 8.2 White nationalist images produced by the North West Infidels. 244 8.3 Front cover of Anders Breivik’s ‘manifesto’ 2083. 249 vii List of Tables 2.1 Details of research participants. 32 2.2 Details of observation sites. 33 viii Note on Referencing Academic secondary literature and long-form journalistic articles are cited using in- line references within the text. Fieldwork data, news agency reports, websites and the like are referenced using footnotes. ix Chapter 1 Introduction: Fear and Loathing in Fortress Europe It was a cold, grey and wet Saturday afternoon in February. I was standing huddled underneath a bridge outside Birmingham international rail station, a few miles east of central Birmingham in the town of Solihull, with perhaps two or three hundred other bedraggled and shivering people. The occasion was the inaugural demonstration of Pegida UK, the UK offshoot of the German anti-Muslim protest movement Patri- otische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (Pegida; Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West), which first came to international attention in late 2014 when its weekly rallies in central Dresden began to attract crowds of thou- sands, peaking at around 25,000 in early 2015, shortly after the Paris offices of the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo were attacked by gunmen pledging allegiance to Al Qaeda (Dostal, 2015; Virchow, 2016). The UK group was one of a number of affiliates that had been set up, hoping to emulate the success of the Dresden movement. Fronting the Pegida UK march were its leader, Paul Weston, head of the tiny far- right party Liberty GB and frequent contributor to the US-based blog Gates of Vienna, and Anne Marie Waters, director of Sharia Watch UK and former parliamentary candidate for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), who in September 2017 came second in the contest for that party’s leadership. Joining them in the role of ‘coordinator’ was Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’), former leader of the English Defence League (EDL), the grassroots anti-Muslim street movement 1 that had organised chaotic and often violent demonstrations in multiethnic towns and cities across Britain from the summer of 2009 until it went into decline following Robinson’s departure in late 2013. During its relatively short lifespan, the EDL had become a model for similar ‘Defence League’ mobilisations across Europe and beyond, and had formed important alliances with American Tea Party activists and other parts of the dissident US right (Copsey, 2010; Jackson, 2011). At just after 2pm, the small crowd, made up mostly but not exclusively of young white men, began a ‘silent walk’ of a few hundred yards to a purpose-built stage in the adjacent industrial estate where they gathered to hear speeches by the Pegida UK organisers. Many marchers wore pre-printed stickers with the Pegida logo and the words ‘Save Us’ over their mouths as a symbol of their silence. Somewhat incongru- ously a rainbow flag, the symbol of LGBT emancipation, and an Israeli flag, theStar of David on a white and blue background, fluttered in the wind alongside the red cross of St George, a symbol associated with both English nationalism and the medieval crusades against Islam. The incongruity would, however, be familiar to anyone who had witnessed demonstrations by the EDL, whose attempts to forge a multiethnic and multiconfessional alliance against the ‘Islamisation’ of Britain had involved the creation of LGBT and Jewish ‘divisions’, the latter of which had links to the far-right Jewish Defence League and Jewish Task Force (Bhatt, 2012; Jackson, 2011).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reactionary Postmodernism? Neoliberalism, Multiculturalism, the Internet, and the Ideology of the New Far Right in Germany
    University of Vermont ScholarWorks @ UVM UVM Honors College Senior Theses Undergraduate Theses 2018 Reactionary Postmodernism? Neoliberalism, Multiculturalism, the Internet, and the Ideology of the New Far Right in Germany William Peter Fitz University of Vermont Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses Recommended Citation Fitz, William Peter, "Reactionary Postmodernism? Neoliberalism, Multiculturalism, the Internet, and the Ideology of the New Far Right in Germany" (2018). UVM Honors College Senior Theses. 275. https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/275 This Honors College Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Theses at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in UVM Honors College Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REACTIONARY POSTMODERNISM? NEOLIBERALISM, MULTICULTURALISM, THE INTERNET, AND THE IDEOLOGY OF THE NEW FAR RIGHT IN GERMANY A Thesis Presented by William Peter Fitz to The Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The University of Vermont In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts In European Studies with Honors December 2018 Defense Date: December 4th, 2018 Thesis Committee: Alan E. Steinweis, Ph.D., Advisor Susanna Schrafstetter, Ph.D., Chairperson Adriana Borra, M.A. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Neoliberalism and Xenophobia 17 Chapter Two: Multiculturalism and Cultural Identity 52 Chapter Three: The Philosophy of the New Right 84 Chapter Four: The Internet and Meme Warfare 116 Conclusion 149 Bibliography 166 1 “Perhaps one will view the rise of the Alternative for Germany in the foreseeable future as inevitable, as a portent for major changes, one that is as necessary as it was predictable.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian America in Black and White: Racial Identity, Religious-National Group Boundaries, and Explanations for Racial Inequality
    1 Forthcoming in Sociology of Religion Christian America in Black and White: Racial Identity, Religious-National Group Boundaries, and Explanations for Racial Inequality Samuel L. Perry University of Oklahoma Andrew L. Whitehead Clemson University Abstract Recent research suggests that, for white Americans, conflating national and religious group identities is strongly associated with racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, prompting some to argue that claims about Christianity being central to American identity are essentially about reinforcing white supremacy. Prior work has not considered, however, whether such beliefs may influence the racial views of non-white Americans differently from white Americans. Drawing on a representative sample of black and white Americans from the 2014 General Social Survey, and focusing on explanations for racial inequality as the outcome, we show that, contrary to white Americans, black Americans who view being a Christian as essential to being an American are actually more likely to attribute black-white inequality to structural issues and less to blacks’ individual shortcomings. Our findings suggest that, for black Americans, connecting being American to being Christian does not necessarily bolster white supremacy, but may instead evoke and sustain ideals of racial justice. Keywords: Christian America, racism, racial inequality, black Americans, religion 2 A centerpiece of Donald Trump’s presidency―a presidency now famous for heightened racial strife and the emboldening of white supremacists―is a commitment to defend America’s supposed “Christian heritage.” Trump announced to his audience at Oral Roberts University during his campaign “There is an assault on Christianity…There is an assault on everything we stand for, and we’re going to stop the assault” (Justice and Berglund 2016).
    [Show full text]
  • Spencer Sunshine*
    Journal of Social Justice, Vol. 9, 2019 (© 2019) ISSN: 2164-7100 Looking Left at Antisemitism Spencer Sunshine* The question of antisemitism inside of the Left—referred to as “left antisemitism”—is a stubborn and persistent problem. And while the Right exaggerates both its depth and scope, the Left has repeatedly refused to face the issue. It is entangled in scandals about antisemitism at an increasing rate. On the Western Left, some antisemitism manifests in the form of conspiracy theories, but there is also a hegemonic refusal to acknowledge antisemitism’s existence and presence. This, in turn, is part of a larger refusal to deal with Jewish issues in general, or to engage with the Jewish community as a real entity. Debates around left antisemitism have risen in tandem with the spread of anti-Zionism inside of the Left, especially since the Second Intifada. Anti-Zionism is not, by itself, antisemitism. One can call for the Right of Return, as well as dissolving Israel as a Jewish state, without being antisemitic. But there is a Venn diagram between anti- Zionism and antisemitism, and the overlap is both significant and has many shades of grey to it. One of the main reasons the Left can’t acknowledge problems with antisemitism is that Jews persistently trouble categories, and the Left would have to rethink many things—including how it approaches anti- imperialism, nationalism of the oppressed, anti-Zionism, identity politics, populism, conspiracy theories, and critiques of finance capital—if it was to truly struggle with the question. The Left understands that white supremacy isn’t just the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, but that it is part of the fabric of society, and there is no shortcut to unstitching it.
    [Show full text]
  • European Semiotics and the Radical Right Christian Maines Feature
    feature / 1 Crusaders Past and Present: European Semiotics and the Radical Right Christian Maines In a Tortoiseshell: In his Writing Seminar R3, Christian Maines puts the discourse we see today in the news regarding the Alt-right into historical context, letting his research guide his understanding of the group, rather than the other way around. His use of structuring elements—purposeful orienting, definitions of key terms, clear topic sentences, consistent tie back sentences—sets his argument up for success. Motivating his thesis from the beginning to the end, Christian is able to not only sustain his topic, but make an insightful contribution to our understanding of the Alt-right. Feature Between Aug. 11th and 12th of 2017, crowds swarmed the streets of Charlottesville wearing plate armor, carrying torches, and calling out battle cries—chants of “You will not replace us!” and “Deus Vult!” echoed through the streets.1 By sundown on the 13th, there was a memorial of flower wreathes on the ground for Heather Heyer, struck down by a car in the midst of the protests.2 Coverage of the violence largely associated the protests with the “Alt-Right,” a loosely- defined collection of radical American nationalists with undertones of racism and extremism.3 Immense violence and tragedy came about in this single instance of conflict spurred on by the Alt-Right. However, in recent months, the consensus in news media has been that the movement is dead, as authors claim that the Alt-Right “has grown increasingly chaotic and fractured, torn apart by infighting and legal troubles,” and cite lawsuits and arrests, fundraising difficulties, tepid recruitment, counter protests, and banishment from social media platforms.4 1 Staff, “Deconstructing the symbols and slogans spotted in Charlottesville,” accessed 14 April 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/local/charlottesville- videos/?utm_term=.370f3936a4be.
    [Show full text]
  • Muslim Antisemitism and the Conspiracy of Silence / Neil J
    Additional Praise for “The Sons of Pigs and Apes” “Although Neil Kressel’s magisterial essay is primarily addressed at those in the West who pretend that antisemitism is no more than a tragic memory, it is also of great value for those Muslims who dream of, and increasingly fight for, a free society. Kressel’s message is clear: fighting anti-Jewish ideas and practices must be an integral part of any strategy for freedom in Muslim countries.” —Amir TAheri, AuThor of The Persian nighT “Shines new light on antisemitism in the Muslim world, and shows how hatred of the Jewish people remains a potent—even deadly—force in modern times. Kressel ably distinguishes between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism and debunks the false accusation that the Jewish community wields the charge of antisemitism as a bludgeon to quash anti-Israel criticism.” ––AbrAhAm h. foxmAn, nationAl direcTor, AnTi-defAmation leAgue “Many books have recently been written about Islamic antisemitism, but none is as precise, scrupulous, and well-informed as Neil Kressel’s ‘The Sons of Pigs and Apes,’ which is a thorough unmasking of some disgraceful attitudes, and of the widespread failure to confront them.” —irfAn KhAwAjA, chAir, depArTmenT of philosophy, feliciAn college “An important but disquieting book. Neil Kressel’s skill as a social scientist is manifest throughout the work and his arguments persuasive. To cure a malaise one must first confront its symptoms and seek their underlying causes. In dealing with Muslim antisemitism, Kressel’s work is more than helpful—it is essential.” —michAel berenbAum, former direcTor of The uniTed states holocAusT reseArch insTiTuTe at The u.s.
    [Show full text]
  • The Radical Roots of the Alt-Right
    Gale Primary Sources Start at the source. The Radical Roots of the Alt-Right Josh Vandiver Ball State University Various source media, Political Extremism and Radicalism in the Twentieth Century EMPOWER™ RESEARCH The radical political movement known as the Alt-Right Revolution, and Evolian Traditionalism – for an is, without question, a twenty-first century American audience. phenomenon.1 As the hipster-esque ‘alt’ prefix 3. A refined and intensified gender politics, a suggests, the movement aspires to offer a youthful form of ‘ultra-masculinism.’ alternative to conservatism or the Establishment Right, a clean break and a fresh start for the new century and .2 the Millennial and ‘Z’ generations While the first has long been a feature of American political life (albeit a highly marginal one), and the second has been paralleled elsewhere on the Unlike earlier radical right movements, the Alt-Right transnational right, together the three make for an operates natively within the political medium of late unusual fusion. modernity – cyberspace – because it emerged within that medium and has been continuously shaped by its ongoing development. This operational innovation will Seminal Alt-Right figures, such as Andrew Anglin,4 continue to have far-reaching and unpredictable Richard Spencer,5 and Greg Johnson,6 have been active effects, but researchers should take care to precisely for less than a decade. While none has continuously delineate the Alt-Right’s broader uniqueness. designated the movement as ‘Alt-Right’ (including Investigating the Alt-Right’s incipient ideology – the Spencer, who coined the term), each has consistently ferment of political discourses, images, and ideas with returned to it as demarcating the ideological territory which it seeks to define itself – one finds numerous they share.
    [Show full text]
  • The English Defence League: Challenging Our Country and Our Values of Social Inclusion, Fairness and Equality
    THE ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE: CHALLENGING OUR COUNTRY AND OUR VALUES OF SOCIAL INCLUSION, FAIRNESS AND EQUALITY by Professor Nigel Copsey Professor of Modern History School of Arts and Media Teesside University (UK) On Behalf of Faith Matters 2 Foreword This report focuses on the English Defence League (EDL) and asks whether the organisation poses a threat to our country and our values of social inclusion, fairness and equality. This report demonstrates clearly that the English Defence League does not represent the values which underpin our communities and our country: respect for our fellow citizens, respect for difference, and ensuring the safety and peace of communities and local areas. On the contrary, actions by the EDL have led to fear within communities and a sense that they are ‘under siege’ and under the media and national ‘spotlight’. Many within these communities feel that the peace and tranquillity which they deserve has been broken up by the EDL, whose main aim is to increase tension, raise hate and increase community division by the use of intimidating tactics. These are not the actions of a group ‘working against extremism’. These are the actions of extremists in their own right, masquerading as a grass roots social force, supposedly bringing their brand of community resilience against ‘Muslim extremism’. It is essential to inoculate communities against the toxins that are being injected into these areas by the EDL and other extremist groups like Al-Muhajiroun. Letting these groups go unchecked destroys what we stand for and damages our image globally. This report has been put together in partnership with Professor Nigel Copsey and we hope that it activates social action against those who seek to divide our communities.
    [Show full text]
  • DOCHEV, IVAN VOL. 3 0089.Pdf
    UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDinyorAigurinsTIGATION he Rapt,. Pismo Refer Io File No. OCT 14 149 / /, f eA)r bake -11KINA 4. t Foot DoC0J30t9v; MeiyiL WO ` OeorgytTodbrov ,) ) . 1 _ :1 '41 i- ../". On March 6, 1969, pr. Ivan Doeheff, President, Bulgarian National Front, Incorporated (BNFJ, an anti-Commu- nist Bulgarian emigre organization, advised Special Agents (SAS) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that about one year ago, he met captioned individuals who had escaped from Bulgaria and were admitted to the United States as con- ditional entrants. In an effort to help them, he and other members of the BliF sought employment for them in the New York City area. Although, they were offered jobs as laborers,they refused these offers, and it was soon obvious to Docheff that they were not interested in obtaining employment. After some.months, Docheff learned that Dotov and Todorov were meeting Bulgarians in the New York City area, and were keeping records of those they met and their Bulgari- an backgrounds. He also noticed that they were interested in having him dideuss domestic and international politics. When he refused to enter into such discussions, they told him they had "special wurk" to do, and were not only interested in gathering information about Bulgarians in this country but were also interested in information about political matters. At one point, they mentioned that they were gathering this information so they could check on Bulgarians in the United States who might, in the future, return to Bulgaria. Docheff DBC This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions •f the FBI.
    [Show full text]
  • Internal Brakes the British Extreme Right (Pdf
    FEBRUARY 2019 The Internal Brakes on Violent Escalation The British extreme right in the 1990s ANNEX B Joel Busher, Coventry University Donald Holbrook, University College London Graham Macklin, Oslo University This report is the second empirical case study, produced out of The Internal Brakes on Violent Escalation: A Descriptive Typology programme, funded by CREST. You can read the other two case studies; The Trans-national and British Islamist Extremist Groups and The Animal Liberation Movement, plus the full report at: https://crestresearch.ac.uk/news/internal- brakes-violent-escalation-a-descriptive-typology/ To find out more information about this programme, and to see other outputs from the team, visit the CREST website at: www.crestresearch.ac.uk/projects/internal-brakes-violent-escalation/ About CREST The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) is a national hub for understanding, countering and mitigating security threats. It is an independent centre, commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and funded in part by the UK security and intelligence agencies (ESRC Award: ES/N009614/1). www.crestresearch.ac.uk ©2019 CREST Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-SA licence. www.crestresearch.ac.uk/copyright TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................5 2. INTERNAL BRAKES ON VIOLENCE WITHIN THE BRITISH EXTREME RIGHT .................10 2.1 BRAKE 1: STRATEGIC LOGIC .......................................................................................................................................10
    [Show full text]
  • Russian Nationalism and Ethnic Violence
    Russian Nationalism and Ethnic Violence Nationalism is now the dominant narrative in Russian politics, and one with genuine popularity in society. Russian Nationalism and Ethnic Violence: Symbolic violence, lynching, pogrom, and massacre is a theoretical and empirical study which seeks to break the concept of ‘ethnic violence’ into distinguishable types, examining the key question of why violence within the same conflict takes different forms at certain times and providing empirical insight into the politics of one of the most important countries in the world today. Theoretically, the work promises to bring the content of ethnic identity back into explanations of ethnic violence, with concepts from social theory, and empirical and qualitative analysis of databases, newspaper reports, human rights reports, social media, and ethnographic interviews. It sets out a new typology of ethnic violence, studied against examples of neo-Nazi attacks, Cossack violence against Meskhetian Turks, and Russian race riots. The study brings hate crimes in Russia into the study of ethnic violence and examines the social undercurrents that have led to Putin’s embrace of nationalism. It adds to the growing body of English language scholarship on Russia’s nationalist turn in the post-Cold War era, and will be essential read- ing for anyone seeking to understand not only why different forms of ethnic violence occur, but also the potential trajectory of Russian politics in the next 20 years. Richard Arnold is Associate Professor of Political Science at Muskingum University where he teaches comparative politics and international relations. He was the 2015 recipient of the William Rainey Harper award for Out- standing Scholarship and has published numerous articles in PS: Political Science and Politics, Theoretical Criminology, Post-Soviet Affairs, Problems of Post-Communism, Nationalities Papers, and Journal for the Study of Radic- alism.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the Far Right'
    H-Nationalism Cârstocea on Traverso, 'The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the Far Right' Review published on Tuesday, October 8, 2019 Enzo Traverso. The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the Far Right. London: Verso, 2019. viii + 200 pp. $24.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-78873-046-4. Reviewed by Raul Cârstocea (University of Leicester) Published on H-Nationalism (October, 2019) Commissioned by Cristian Cercel (Ruhr University Bochum) Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=54462 Historicizing the Present: A Conceptual Reading of Postfascism Previously relegated to the dustbin of history, a specialist subject of seemingly antiquarian interest and otherwise popular only as a term of abuse meant to delegitimize one’s opponents, the last decade has seen “fascism” come back in fashion, in the tow of the other two terms making up the subtitle of Enzo Traverso’s book: populism and the Far Right. The increasing importance of the latter on the political spectrum, part and parcel of a resurgence of authoritarianism that is presently experienced globally, from the “Old” to the “New” Europe and from China, Russia, and Turkey to the United States and Brazil, has conjured up the specter of “fascism,” even for (the majority of) authors who find the association misleading. As such, despite the deluge of publications trading in the subject with more or less insight, a book that explicitly aims to link the two phenomena and analyze its contemporary iterations as “new faces of fascism” could not be more timely. From the outset however, we are introduced to another term, “postfascism,” according to the familiar and (still?) fashionable tendency to assign a “post” to everything, from “human” to “truth.” The “concept emphasizes its chronological distinctiveness and locates it in a historical sequence implying both continuity and transformation,” underlining “the reality of change” (p.
    [Show full text]
  • The Christchurch Attack Report: Key Takeaways on Tarrant’S Radicalization and Attack Planning
    The Christchurch Attack Report: Key Takeaways on Tarrant’s Radicalization and Attack Planning Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, Chelsea Daymon and Amarnath Amarasingam i The Christchurch Attack Report: Key Takeaways on Tarrant’s Radicalization and Attack Planning Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, Chelsea Daymon and Amarnath Amarasingam ICCT Perspective December 2020 ii About ICCT The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) is an independent think and do tank providing multidisciplinary policy advice and practical, solution- oriented implementation support on prevention and the rule of law, two vital pillars of effective counterterrorism. ICCT’s work focuses on themes at the intersection of countering violent extremism and criminal justice sector responses, as well as human rights-related aspects of counterterrorism. The major project areas concern countering violent extremism, rule of law, foreign fighters, country and regional analysis, rehabilitation, civil society engagement and victims’ voices. Functioning as a nucleus within the international counter-terrorism network, ICCT connects experts, policymakers, civil society actors and practitioners from different fields by providing a platform for productive collaboration, practical analysis, and exchange of experiences and expertise, with the ultimate aim of identifying innovative and comprehensive approaches to preventing and countering terrorism. Licensing and Distribution ICCT publications are published in open access format and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
    [Show full text]