Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America's Violent
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Challengers from the Sidelines Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right Arie Perliger ‘Field of Empty Chairs’ is part of the Oklahoma City National Memorial which commemorates the victims killed in the 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building Challengers from the Sidelines Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right Arie Perliger THE COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER AT WEST POINT www.ctc.usma.edu November 2012 The views expressed in this report are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Combating Terrorism Center, U.S. Military Academy, Department of Defense or U.S. government. 1 AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is a pleasure to thank those with whom I have had the privilege to discuss the nature of the violent American far-right, and learn from their feedback. Most importantly, this project could not have been completed without the support of the Combating Terrorism Center and Department of Social Sciences at West Point. I owe a great debt to those colleagues who spent considerable time and efforts reading and commenting on drafts of this study, their critical assessment was invaluable. My gratitude to the external readers Eitan Alimi and Leonard Weinberg who provided constructive feedback. I am also grateful to the internal reviews provided by my colleagues Liam Collins, Gabriel Koehler-Derrick and Nelly Lahoud. My immense gratitude also to my research assistant, Limor Yungman, whose help with building the Far-Right attacks dataset was critical to this project. I have also benefited from my conversations with Jon Brickey, Ami Pedahzur, Bruce Hoffman, Cindy Jebb, Michael Meese, Assaf Moghadam, Reid Sawyer and Bryan Price. Last, but not least, I’m thankful to Andrew Watts for his meticulous copyediting. Arie Perliger West Point, New York November 2012 2 Executive Summary Introduction In the last few years, and especially since 2007, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of attacks and violent plots originating from individuals and groups who self- identify with the far-right of American politics. These incidents cause many to wonder whether these are isolated attacks, an increasing trend, part of increasing societal violence, or attributable to some other condition. To date, however, there has been limited systematic documentation and analysis of incidents of American domestic violence. This study provides a conceptual foundation for understanding different far-right groups and then presents the empirical analysis of violent incidents to identify those perpetrating attacks and their associated trends. Through a comprehensive look at the data, this study addresses three core questions: (1) What are the main current characteristics of the violence produced by the far right? (2) What type of far-right groups are more prone than others to engage in violence? How are characteristics of particular far-right groups correlated with their tendency to engage in violence? (3) What are the social and political factors associated with the level of far-right violence? Are there political or social conditions that foster or discourage violence? It is important to note that this study concentrates on those individuals and groups who have actually perpetuated violence and is not a comprehensive analysis of the political causes with which some far-right extremists identify. While the ability to hold and appropriately articulate diverse political views is an American strength, extremists committing acts of violence in the name of those causes undermine the freedoms that they purport to espouse. The Landscape of the American Violent Far Right There are three major ideological movements within the American violent far right: a racist/white supremacy movement, an anti-federalist movement and a fundamentalist 3 movement. The ideological characteristics of the different movements affect their operations in terms of tactics used, targets selected, and operations conducted. The racist movement is comprised of white supremacy groups such as the KKK, neo- Nazi groups such as the National Alliance and Skinheads groups such as the Hammerskin Nation. The groups comprising this movement are interested in preserving or restoring what they perceive as the appropriate and natural racial and cultural hierarchy, by enforcing social and political control over non-Aryans/nonwhites such as African Americans, Jews, and various immigrant communities. Therefore, their ideological foundations are based mainly on ideas of racism, segregation, xenophobia, and nativism (rejection of foreign norms and practices). In line with the movement’s ideology, the great majority of attacks perpetrated by the racist groups are aimed against individuals or groups affiliated with a specific minority ethnic group, or identifiable facilities (mosques, synagogues, or schools affiliated with minority communities). However, while the KKK extremists are heavily involved in acts of vandalism, extremists from Skinheads and Neo-Nazi groups are more likely to engage in attacks against people, including mass casualty attacks. Violence derived from the modern anti-federalist movement appeared in full force only in the early to mid-1990s and is interested in undermining the influence, legitimacy and effective sovereignty of the federal government and its proxy organizations. The anti- federalist rationale is multifaceted, and includes the beliefs that the American political system and its proxies were hijacked by external forces interested in promoting a “New World Order” (NWO) in which the United States will be absorbed into the United Nations or another version of global government. They also espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals’ civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti- federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement. Lastly, the fundamentalist stream, which includes mainly Christian Identity groups such as the Aryan Nations, fuse religious fundamentalism with traditional white supremacy and racial tendencies, thus promoting ideas of nativism, exclusionism, and racial superiority through a unique interpretation of religious texts that focuses on division of humanity according to primordial attributes. More specifically, these groups 4 maintain that a correct interpretation of the holy texts reveals that it is not the people of Israel but the Anglo-Saxons who are the chosen people and therefore assert their natural superior status. Moreover, the war between the forces of light and darkness, as portrayed in the Bible, will be (or has already been) manifested through a racial war between the white Anglo-Saxon nation and various non-Anglo-Saxon ethnic groups. Operationally, violence carried out by extremists associated with Identity groups focuses on minorities and Identity members have a higher tendency to engage in mass casualty attacks in comparison to other movements. The typology illustrates that extremists link their behavior with their underlying ideology and reinforce each other in the organizational frameworks of the American violent far right. From a theoretical perspective, this constitutes a further indication of the perception among some parts of the academic community that terrorism is an instrument of symbolic discourse which is shared by violent groups and their adversaries. Target selection is thus not based just on operational considerations, but is one component, among others, that allows extremist groups to shape their message using violent practices. Timing, weapons used, and target locations are only part of all possible components that shape the symbolic message conveyed by any specific attack. In this context, the policy implications are clear. If the different far right extremist groups are driven by different ideological sentiments, and are thus also engaged in distinguishable tactics, then the counterterrorism response must be tailored appropriately for the movement involved. Trends of Violence This study also seeks to explain how both exogenous and endogenous factors may shape the characteristics of American far right violence, including political, demographic, and economic factors. Findings indicate that contentious and conservative political environments as well as the political empowerment are positively associated with the volume of violence; thus, it is not only feelings of deprivation that motivate those involved in far right violence, but also the sense of empowerment that emerges when the political system is perceived to be increasingly permissive to far right ideas. These trends contradict predominant perceptions which associate motivational forces that facilitate political violence with the unbalanced allocation of goods, and 5 provide support for explanations which focus on correlations between violence and perceived changes in the sociopolitical structure. While the findings are not particularly strong with regard to the relationship between the level of violence and economic factors, when looking at the trends in violence not only in relation to time, but also across space, and considering demographic indicators, it is clear that the violence is concentrated in heterogeneous areas, thus supporting theoretical assumptions associating intra-community violence with community cohesiveness and its members’ perceptions regarding community boundaries. It is therefore