Miroslav Mareš is a professor at Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) at the Department of Political Science and Faculty of Social Studies. His research focuses on extremism, terrorism and security policy in Central and Eastern Europe.

Right-wing extremist violence and terrorism  

The contemporary wave of right-wing extremist violence and terrorism is a challenge to research from various perspectives. A comprehensive overview is included in the monothematic issue of the journal Perspectives on Terrorism, edited by Tore Bjørgo and Jacob Ravndal. Both authors also published the paper Extreme-Right Violence and Terrorism: Concepts, Patterns and Responses for the ICCT. They explain the relations between various categories (hate crime, terrorism, violence) and they present (through a set of figures) the development trends of the researched phenomenon.

They note that while skinhead violence has largely faded, the main violent challenge “from the extreme right in Western Europe today comes from lone actors and small autonomous cells.” Bjørgo and Ravndal analyse the case of Anders Breivik and his contemporary successors. Their final chapter is especially valuable concerning responses to extreme right violence and terrorism. The authors identify several possibilities to disrupt attacks at different stages of the process of lone wolf terrorism.

Even though it is not common to promote here one’s own publications, I will make an exception due to the topical importance of the book, which was edited by Tore Bjørgo and Miroslav Mareš. This edited volume, titled Vigilantism against Migrants and Minorities, traces the rise of far-right vigilante movements. It is written by a team of international contributors from across Western and Eastern Europe, as well as North America and Asia. They provide a variety of analyses about this specific phenomenon.

The strong performative role of many recent vigilante patrols with links to the extreme right is emphasised in the book (among others, in chapters dedicated to the Soldiers of Odin in several countries and regions). On the other hand, violent and even terrorist forms of vigilantism are still important in contemporary world. A rise of vigilante border patrols was observed as a symptom of the so called “migration crisis” in the middle of the second decade of the 21^st century. The main findings are summarised, and some attributes of vigilantism are re-conceptualised in the final comparative chapter.

The research on right-wing extremist violence can be focused on specific regional issues. A team of authors from the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Research (Uwe Backes, Sebastian Gräfe, Anna-Maria Haase, Maximilian Kreter, Michal Logvinov and Sven Segelke) analysed violent extreme right events in the German federal state of Saxony.

Saxony is well-known due to electoral success of far-right parties as well as due to a high level of extreme right violence. The authors address, among other issues, the relations between extreme right music scene and violence. Profiles of important militant groups from the region are included in the book (Gruppe Freital, National Socialists Chemnitz, Freie Kameradchaft Dresden etc.). Impact of new social media on the right-wing extremist militancy is researched.