The Globalization Of Extreme Right Terrorism

By George Michael

The past several years have witnessed a resurgence of right-wing political violence throughout the Western world. Sporadic episodes, including mass shootings, have elevated the threat of racial violence from the extreme right to the extent that is now assessed as a potentially greater hazard than jihadi terrorism.

ssue. For instance, at a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee in February 2020, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray stated that his agency had “elevated to the top-level priority racially motivated violent extremism so it’s on the same footing in terms of our national threat banding as ISIS and homegrown violent extremism.” According to the 2020 Homeland Threat Assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “White Supremacist Extremists” “remain[ed] the most persistent and lethal threat” in the country, accounting for approximately 40% of all terrorist attacks and plots recorded in 2019. The next year, the U.S. State Department classified the Russian Imperial Movement as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” entity, the first time an extreme right group attained such status. In April 2020, the United Nations’ Secretary-General António Guterres, expressed fear that the COVID-19 crisis might provide an opportunity for right-wing extremists and others to promote division, social unrest, and violence. In February 2021, the Canadian government labeled the Proud Boys—a self-de...