RightNow! - Page 6

How can analysis of ‘credibility contests’ help us understand where and when anti-minority activism is more likely to gain momentum? Joel Busher, Gareth Harris and Graham Macklin draw on their recent research to provide some pointers.

Ethnonationalism has been as common in Georgia as in other post-Soviet countries, but the far-right social movement has especially been gaining traction for the past five years, gradually becoming larger, more diverse, and more violent. The parliamentary elections approaching in 2020 create a window of opportunity for far-right actors to gain access to mainstream politics. ​

During the last few years, especially around the refugee crisis in 2015-16, vigilante groups popped up all over Europe and North America, patrolling the streets and national borders. They claimed to protect the local citizenry against crime and security threats constituted by illegal migrants and minority groups.

Liberal Roots of Far-Right Activism, by Lars Erik Berntzen, discusses the nature and implications of the anti-Islamic turn of the contemporary far right in Western Europe, North America and beyond.

In the aftermath of the episodes of mass political violence that have occurred across Europe over the past decade, scholars and commentators are regularly confronted with the question of ‘how can we prevent this from happening again?’. Håvard Haugstvedt, PhD at the University of Stavanger and visiting researcher at C-REX, explains why answering is more complex than usually assumed.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 – when the Jewish community all over the world was celebrating the holiest day in the year, Yom Kippur – 27-year-old German Stephan B. was mounting a helmet in a rented car and prepared for what he hoped would be a mass shooting attack against the nearby synagogue in Halle an der Saale.

In the wake of Sunday´s general election in Austria, the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has faced a sharp decline in votes. FPÖ´s major loss is due to a recent corruption scandal, but it is also most likely caused by the declining salience of the immigration issue

Petter Nesser's key note lecture on Society for Terrorism Research annual conference, Oslo, 21 June 2019

Last month saw more than 900 million eligible voters at the ballot box in the world’s largest democracy. India’s national election once again resulted in the landslide victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The established radical right party in Denmark experienced a significant setback in the general election. The main reasons are a combination of mainstream cooptation, radical competitors and an unfavorable political agenda. 

This is a party that embraces Mussolini and Che Guevara — and cartoons and pop culture

The contribution from the Scandinavian far right – the Danish People’s Party (DF) and the Sweden Democrats (SD) – to Salvini's alliance, the European Alliance of People and Nations, is likely to be very small. In short, because DF is losing support and because SD is uninterested in joining.

Here’s why the way it’s measured matters.

Why do some ‘extremists’ or ‘extremist groups’ choose not to engage in violence, or only in particular forms of low-level violence? Why, even in deeply violent groups, are there often thresholds of violence that members rarely if ever cross?

As a researcher, I have followed various extreme right groups and movements in Norway and Scandinavia during the last 30 years. There have been some significant changes during this time – changes that have an impact on how our society should relate to such milieus, and what kinds of preventive measures might be relevant and effective.

Finland has witnessed extraparliamentary far-right extremism of varying degrees throughout most of its history.

In February 2015, the Counterterrorism and Security Act was passed by the UK Parliament. The Act imposed a legal duty on several public bodies, including higher education institutions (HEIs), to “have due regard to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”, a requirement referred to as the Prevent Duty.

If research can only be as good as the data on which it is based, then the study of terrorism has been in serious trouble for decades, writes Bart Schuurman.

Is framing Islam as a ‘bad religion’ inevitable?

Joel Busher and Graham Macklin identifies a number of issues that needs to be addressed for the concepts of ‘reciprocal radicalisation’ and ‘cumulative extremism’ to add value.

Trump’s former adviser is no evil genius. But his reputation as a dangerous figure risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, writes Cas Mudde

The five-year trial of Beate Zschäpe, the last surviving member of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a neo-Nazi terrorist group, has finally ended with Zschäpe, the principal defendant, receiving a life sentence for her part in ten racially motivated killings.

Why do people leave far-right extremism?  Do they simply tire of the hateful messages?  Is it too difficult to stay attached to a politics that one’s friends and family reject?

On May 14/15 2018, C-REX, the Centre for Research on Extremism in the Faculty of Social Sciences held a cross-disciplinary conference on ‘Gender and Extremism’ at the University of Oslo.

When the limits of democracy and the rule of law for threats and abuse are overstepped, the authorities must react – decisively.