scholarly journals One and the Same? An Exploration into Two Common Ideological Motivations for Lone-Actor Terror Attacks in the West Between 2010-2017

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Tylah Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The West ◽  
Terror Attacks ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Social Minorities ◽  
Islamic Extremism ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

<p>Islamic extremism (IE) and right-wing extremism (RWE) are the two most common ideological motivations for perpetrating lone-actor terrorism in the West. This study explored the similarities and differences of these ideologies by coding for specific attack and personal characteristics of attacks that occurred between 2010-2017 in Western Europe, Australia, and North America. Lone-actor terrorism included attacks perpetrated by individuals, as well as isolated dyads and triads. A codebook was developed to capture the attack and personal characteristics, and data was obtained from media and other open-source reporting. The dataset included a total of 99 cases perpetrated by 102 individual actors. The study found that lone-actor attacks perpetrated by IE and RWE had increased significantly over the time period studied. Some key significant differences were found: IE were more likely to be an immigrant to the country of attack they were born in, were more likely to target civilians, and their plots or extremist activity were more visible to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, while RWE were more likely to be single, more likely to target social minorities less likely to have experienced tertiary level education or higher, less likely to have children, and are significantly older than IEs. However, for the majority of variables there were no significant differences between IE and RWE, including variables that may indicate strain in a perpetrator’s life (mental health, social isolation and experience of stressful events), indicating that overall the attacks perpetrated by individuals of the two ideologies share more commonalities than differences.</p>

scholarly journals One and the Same? An Exploration into Two Common Ideological Motivations for Lone-Actor Terror Attacks in the West Between 2010-2017

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Tylah Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The West ◽  
Terror Attacks ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Social Minorities ◽  
Islamic Extremism ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

<p>Islamic extremism (IE) and right-wing extremism (RWE) are the two most common ideological motivations for perpetrating lone-actor terrorism in the West. This study explored the similarities and differences of these ideologies by coding for specific attack and personal characteristics of attacks that occurred between 2010-2017 in Western Europe, Australia, and North America. Lone-actor terrorism included attacks perpetrated by individuals, as well as isolated dyads and triads. A codebook was developed to capture the attack and personal characteristics, and data was obtained from media and other open-source reporting. The dataset included a total of 99 cases perpetrated by 102 individual actors. The study found that lone-actor attacks perpetrated by IE and RWE had increased significantly over the time period studied. Some key significant differences were found: IE were more likely to be an immigrant to the country of attack they were born in, were more likely to target civilians, and their plots or extremist activity were more visible to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, while RWE were more likely to be single, more likely to target social minorities less likely to have experienced tertiary level education or higher, less likely to have children, and are significantly older than IEs. However, for the majority of variables there were no significant differences between IE and RWE, including variables that may indicate strain in a perpetrator’s life (mental health, social isolation and experience of stressful events), indicating that overall the attacks perpetrated by individuals of the two ideologies share more commonalities than differences.</p>

Extremism Rising

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Arie W. Kruglanski ◽  
David Webber ◽  
Daniel Koehler
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
History Of ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Islamic Extremism ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

In Chapter 1, the reader is introduced to the current context within which right-wing extremism in Europe occurs. The chapter begins with a discussion of the changing political and economic environments within Europe and the United States that have increased the appeal and expression of right-wing views over the past decade. Issues discussed include ramifications of globalization, refugee migration into Europe, populism, the electoral success of right-wing parties, and the history of national socialism in Germany. The actual extent of right-wing militancy is juxtaposed to the relatively modest concern expressed toward right-wing, relative to Islamic extremism. Finally, the reader is introduced to the specific conceptual approach taken by the authors in examining German right-wing extremism.

scholarly journals Westlessness? Challenges for the EU’s Soft Power Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Ludewig
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
The West ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

The West claims to be an economic and political power. However, its moral authority seems increasingly pilloried in many places. Some political scientists even speak of “Westlessness”: populism, nationalism, right-wing extremism, terrorism and democratic fatigue are some of the symptoms. This disunity of many people in Western industrialised nations is nowhere more evident than in relation to the contested topic of immigration. It polarises societies, as it is precisely here that legal convictions clash with ethical and moral ones and subsequently fail in the attempt to create Realpolitik. This article will trace the events that led to the neologism “Westlessness” being coined, before it will contextualise responses from within and without to this diagnosis and use the EU’s responses to the so-called refugee crisis from 2015 until the present as a test case for its future in solidarity and unity.

Populism and Cosmopolitanism as a Unitary Structure of Global Systemic Process

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
Jonathan Friedman ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Right Wing ◽  
The West ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Systemic Process ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

Populism is discussed here in terms of the larger global systemic matrix in which it occurs. It is suggested that it is not, as has been claimed so often, recently, somehow related to what is labelled as right-wing extremism. It is an expression of an aspiration to sovereignty, control over one’s conditions of existence and its links to either left or right are based on that aspiration. And, of course, right and left are themselves terms that have shifted or even been inverted over the past 30 years. The core argument is that populism and cosmopolitanism form a complementary opposition that has emerged as a product of the hegemonic decline of the West.

Contemporary Right-Wing Radicalism in Europe

1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
HANS-GEORG BETZ
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Ann Arbor ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

Herbert Kitschelt in collaboration with Anthony J. McGann, The Radical Right in Western Europe. A Comparative Analysis (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995), 323 pp., $49.50, ISBN 0-472-10663-5.Peter Merkl and Leonard Weinberg (eds.), The Revival of Right Wing Extremism in the 90s (London: Frank Cass, 1997), 304 pp., £18.50/$24.50, ISBN 0-714-64207-X.Urs Altermatt and Hanspeter Kriesi, L'Extrême droite en Suisse. Organisations et radicalisation au cours des années quatre-vingt et quatre-vingt-dix (Fribourg: Les Éditions Universitaires, 1995), 293 pp. (pb.), SFr. 42.00, ISBN 2-827-10727-9.Mike Cronin (ed.), The Failure of British Fascism. The Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition (London: Macmillan, 1996), 182 pp. (hb.), £35.00, ISBN 0-333-58438-4.Gerhard Feldbauer, Von Mussolini bis Fini. Die Extreme Rechte in Italien (Berlin: Elefanten Press, 1996), 224 pp. (pb.), DM 29.40, ISBN 3-885-20575-0.Helmut Reinalter, Franko Petri and Rüdiger Kaufmann (eds.), Das Weltbild des Rechtsextremismus. Entsolidarisierung und Bedrohng der Demokratie. Gesellschaftliche Bedingungen, Strukturen und Wirkungen rechtsextremen Denkens (Innsbruck/Vienna: Studienverlag, 1998), 576 pp., DM 82.00, ISBN 3-706-51258-0.Tore Bjørgo, Racist and Right-Wing Violence in Scandinavia: Patterns, Perpetrators, and Responses (Oslo: Tano-Aschehoug, 1997), 386 pp., Kr 298.00, ISBN 8-251-83665-4.Jeffrey Kaplan and Tore Bjørgo (eds.), Nation and Race: The Development of a Euro-American Racist Subculture (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998), 273 pp. (pb.), £19.00, ISBN 1-555-53331-0.

scholarly journals ‘Fascism… but with an open mind.’ Reflections on the Contemporary Far Right in (Western) Europe

Fascism ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Copsey
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Science Community ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

The political science community would have us believe that since the 1980s something entirely detached from historical or neo-fascism has emerged in (Western) Europe - a populist radicalization of mainstream concerns - a novel form of ‘radical right-wing populism.’ Yet the concept of ‘radical right-wing populism’ is deeply problematic because it suggests that (Western) Europe’s contemporary far right has become essentially different from forms of right-wing extremism that preceded it, and from forms of right-wing extremism that continue to exist alongside it. Such an approach, as this First Lecture on Fascism argues, fails to appreciate the critical role that neo-fascism has played, and still plays, in adapting Europe’s contemporary far right to the norms and realities of multi-ethnic, liberal-democratic society. Political scientists should fixate less on novelty and the quest for neat typologies, and instead engage far more seriously with (neo) fascism studies.

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