Tackling Hate in the Homeland: US Radical Right Narratives and Counter-Narratives at a Time of Renewed Threat

By William Allchorn

Over the past few years, North America, particularly the US, has become a focal point for practitioners and researchers studying the radical right. Given the recent rise in white supremacist violence (see the green portion of Figure 1), policymakers are more aware of the urgency of the threat posed by radical right violent extremism, as reflected in a shift in priorities away from overwhelming focus upon religiously inspired extremism. For example, in September 2019, the US Department for Homeland Security (DHS) named white supremacist violent extremists as part of “an evolving domestic threat.” On 5 April 2020, the Russian Imperial Movement was listed as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ group by the US State Department, the first time a white supremacist group was placed on this list. This shift in policy is compounded by the rise of transnational, digitally-anchored, radical right ‘accelerationist’ organisations founded and operating on behalf of an American constituency, such as Atomwaffen Division and the Base, with the leader of the latter apparently also based in Russia.

Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates:  Hedayah and Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, 2021. 66p.