The Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR) is the leading information aggregator and knowledge repository on the radical right, past and present. Above all, CARR intends to lead discussion on the development of radical right extremism around the world. To do this, CARR features work by academic experts on the radical right in… Continue reading “Welcome to Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (#CARR)”
On behalf of the Steering Group, Senior and Doctoral Fellows, a warm welcome to the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (#CARR)! As the centre’s director, I’d like to draw your attention to a few considerations motivating the launch of this specialist-led website and research collective. First and foremost, CARR is a child… Continue reading “Director’s Welcome”
Tommy Robinson has been transformed into a truly global figure, a purported martyr for the dispossessed and the most influential radical-right leader in Britain since Sir Oswald Mosley. Following Tommy Robinson’s imprisonment in May for contempt of court, the #FreeTommy campaign demonstrated just how much the British radical right has changed in a short space of time. It has… Continue reading “Tommy Robinson and the Transformation of the British Far Right”
This article is the third in a series on using social network analysis to explain the structure of extremist online communities and events. The paper that this article is based on will be presented at the 10th International Social Informatics Conference on September 26, 2018. Back in 2017 I began collecting and analyzing social media… Continue reading “Understanding the Network of Anti-Muslim Groups on Facebook”
British values are often comically referred to as the need for orderly queues, a respect for the Queen and cucumber sandwiches with pots of tea, or for one of my participants in my forthcoming PhD thesis, “I’d think of someone getting drunk like on their summer holidays in Ibiza or something”. However, for Government officials,… Continue reading “Mapping the Malleability of British Values”
German right-wing extremism is currently on everyone’s lips. The right-wing threat in Germany is increasing in violence, as the recent rallies and demonstrations in the eastern German cities of Chemnitz and Köthen have made clear. Adding to the danger is the fact that right-wing activists are now closely linked, from football hooligans to neo-Nazis to… Continue reading “German Right-Wing Terrorism”
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” These fourteen words have been seared into white supremacist folklore. Coined by David Laine, a member of the white supremacist group The Order, they summarise his 88 Manifesto, itself a redaction of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and present an inevitable extinction of… Continue reading “Taking our Children – Why Radical Right Extremists Prey on Our Deepest Human Fears”
In his recently published Alt-Right (London: Pluto Press, 2018) Mike Wendling provides a detailed analysis of the alt-right as it exists almost exclusively in cyberspace. The alt-right achieved prominence during the 2016 presidential election campaign thanks largely to Breitbart and its then editor Steve Bannon. Wendling calls attention to the phenomenon of ‘trolling.’ Anonymous ‘trolls’… Continue reading “Trolling Has Been Part Of Right-Wing Movements Throughout History”
As a practitioner working in Prevent I am always grateful for the opportunity to engage with and learn from academia. Whilst I cannot profess to have any theoretical or conceptual expertise in areas such as “cumulative or reciprocal radicalisation” or “interactive escalation,” I do feel that my personal experiences of working in counter terrorism can… Continue reading “Reciprocal Radicalisation – Practical Examples of Prevent Support”
The 2015-2018 Refugee Crisis The 2015-2018 European refugee crisis has provided significant challenges to mainstream centre left parties, as well as the governance of the European Union (EU). As a result, the salience of immigration as a political issue has skyrocketed to prominence and remained high in the public domain. This has created distinct electoral… Continue reading “Opening up Pandora’s Box? How Centre Right Parties can outperform the Far Right”
Framing far-right populist parties as just an unpopular minority downplays the actual impact the rise of far-right populism has already had on European societies. Images of violent far-right groups marching the streets in Germany and the strong performance of the populist far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) in the recent electionshave sparked fears of a further rise of… Continue reading “Why We Shouldn’t Call the Far Right an Unpopular Minority”