The Nature Of Identitarianism

The Nature of Identitarianism explores the background to this new far right movement. Since its origins in France in 2003, Identitarianism has become one of the most influential far-right ideologies. Inspiring groups such as Generation Identity in Europe and the Alt-Right in America, Identitarianism has spawned a far-right constellation that includes white nationalist direct action groups, think tanks, “alternative media” organizations and social media “celebrities”. But the ideas that underpin Identitarianism are often poorly understood. This book examines the movement’s antecedents and intellectual lineage in the thinkers of the Conservative Revolution and the European New Right, as well as the influence of far-right gurus such as Francis Parker Yockey, Jean Thiriart, Julius Evola, and Aleksandr Dugin. The author also investigates how conspiracy thinking, antisemitism, and islamophobia feature prominently in the identitarian worldview. This book will be essential reading for scholars and activists alike with an interest in race relations, fascism, extremism, and social movements.

"Global Identitarianism is about the global spread of the new far-right ideology and social movement Identitarianism. Founded in France in 2003, Identitarianism has inspired a range of groups such as Generation Identity in Europe and the alt-right in America. It has been spread by a far-right constellation that includes white nationalist direct action groups, think tanks, 'alternative media' organizations, social media 'celebrities', and political candidates. This book explores the global reach of this contentious far-right social movement using examples from Europe, North America, Australia, and South America. It will be essential reading for scholars and activists alike with an interest in race relations, fascism, extremism, migration studies, and social movements"--

The Identitarians are a quickly growing ethnocultural transnational movement that, in diverse forms, originated in France and Italy and has spread into southern, central, and northern Europe. This timely and important study presents the first book-length analysis of this anti-globalist and anti-Islamic movement. José Pedro Zúquete, one of the leading experts in this field, studies intellectuals, social movements, young activists, and broader trends to demonstrate the growing strength and alliances among these once disparate groups fighting against perceived Islamic encroachment and rising immigration. The Identitarian intellectual and activist uprising has been a source of inspiration beyond Europe, and Zúquete ties the European experience to the emerging American Alt Right, in the limelight for their support of President Trump and recent public protests on university campuses across the United States. Zúquete presents the multifaceted Identitarian movement on its own terms. He delves deep into the Identitarian literature and social media, covering different geographic contexts and drawing from countless primary sources in different European languages, while simultaneously including many firsthand accounts, testimonies, and interviews with theorists, sympathizers, and activists. The Identitarians investigates a phenomenon that will become increasingly visible on both sides of the Atlantic as European societies become more multicultural and multiethnic, and as immigration from predominantly Muslim nations continues to grow. The book will be of interest to Europeanists, political scientists, sociologists, and general readers interested in political extremism and contemporary challenges to liberal democracies.

Global Identitarianism is about the global spread of the new far-right ideology and social movement Identitarianism. Founded in France in 2003, Identitarianism has inspired a range of groups such as Generation Identity in Europe and the alt-right in America. It has been spread by a far-right constellation that includes white nationalist direct action groups, think tanks, ‘alternative media’ organizations, social media ‘celebrities’, and political candidates. This book explores the global reach of this contentious far-right social movement using examples from Europe, North America, Australia, and South America. It will be essential reading for scholars and activists alike with an interest in race relations, fascism, extremism, migration studies, and social movements.

Exiles have long been transformative actors in their homelands: they foment revolution, sustain dissent, and work to create renewed political institutions and identities back home. Ongoing waves of migration ensure that they will continue to play these vital roles. Rather than focus on what exiles mean for the countries they enter--a perspective that often treats them as passive victims--The Ethics of Exile recognises their political and moral agency, and explores their rich and vital relationship to the communities they have left. It offers a rare view of the other side of the migration story. Engaging with a series of case studies, this book identifies the responsibilities and rights exiles have and the important roles they play in homeland politics. It argues that exile politics performs two functions: it can correct defective political institutions back home, and it can counter asymmetries of voice and power abroad. In short, exiles can act both as a linchpin and a buffer between political communities in crisis and the international actors who seek to, variously, aid and exploit them. When we think about the duties we owe to those forced to leave their homes, we should consider how to enable rather than thwart these roles.

Applying an intercultural and comparative theoretical approach across Asia and Africa, this book analyses the rise and moderation of political movements in developing societies which mobilise popular support with references to conceptions of cultural identity. The author includes not only the Hindu nationalist movement but also many Islamist political movements in a single category – New Cultural Identitarian Political Movements (NCIPM). Demonstrating significant similarities in the pattern of evolution between these and European Christian Democracy, the book provides an instrument for the analysis of these movements outside the parameters of the fundamentalism debate. The book looks at a number of key variables for understanding the evolution of NCIPM, and it goes on to analyse the transition of developing societies from rent-based political economies to capitalism and the (partial) failure of this transition process. It argues that there is a need to incorporate economic and class analysis in the study of political processes in developing societies against the continuing emphasis on cultural factors associated with the "cultural turn" of social sciences. The book is an interesting contribution to studies in South Asian Politics, as well as Comparative Politics.

Despite profound disagreement on whether identities are essential or existential, primordial or constructed, singular or multiple, there is little dispute over whether identities exist or not. In this provocative study, Sinisa Malesevic interrogates the unproblematic use of concepts of identity, and in particular national or ethnic identity.

In 2005, Iraq drafted its first constitution and held the country’s first democratic election in more than fifty years. Even under ideal conditions, drafting a constitution can be a prolonged process marked by contentious debate, and conditions in Iraq are far from ideal: Iraq has long been racked by ethnic and sectarian conflict, which intensified following the American invasion and continues today. This severe division, which often erupted into violence, would not seem to bode well for the fate of democracy. So how is it that Iraq was able to surmount its sectarianism to draft a constitution that speaks to the conflicting and largely incompatible ideological view of the Sunnis, Shi’ah, and Kurds? Haider Ala Hamoudi served in 2009 as an adviser to Iraq’s Constitutional Review Committee, and he argues here that the terms of the Iraqi Constitution are sufficiently capacious to be interpreted in a variety of ways, allowing it to appeal to the country’s three main sects despite their deep disagreements. While some say that this ambiguity avoids the challenging compromises that ultimately must be made if the state is to survive, Hamoudi maintains that to force these compromises on issues of central importance to ethnic and sectarian identity would almost certainly result in the imposition of one group’s views on the others. Drawing on the original negotiating documents, he shows that this feature of the Constitution was not an act of evasion, as is sometimes thought, but a mark of its drafters’ awareness in recognizing the need to permit the groups the time necessary to develop their own methods of working with one another over time.