By Linus B. Höller[1] Header image: Far-right protesters rally in Berlin in August of 2020. The imperial flag is used as a non-prohibited symbol of Germany’s perceived “glorious past.” Photo: Linus Höller/TWU Introduction and Definitions Germany inhabits a unique place in the world of the far right. On the one hand, it was the implementer…
Category: Right-wing
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was by no stretch of the imagination inevitable, but the factors that culminated in Putin eventually giving his troops the “go” were a long time in the making and include old territorial grievances, more recent Russian concerns about NATO and a healthy dose of authoritarianism. Let’s break down some key facts underlying the invasion.
Veterans play an outsized role in far-right extremist campaigns to topple the U.S. government. Their skills are used to train the main fighting force: People who considered joining the military, but end up fighting their own country instead.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party planned ahead: Some of their first major actions targeted the independence of the courts. Now, there are few ways for citizens to fight more direct attacks on civil society.
Amid rising numbers of domestic terrorist attacks by people with military backgrounds, politicians and experts in Washington exchanged verbal blows over “wrong” priorities Wednesday.
By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University Reports Without Borders consistently ranks Austria among the best countries when it comes to press freedom in their annual investigations. In RSF’s 2021 report, Austria ranked 17th – putting into the second-highest bracket of countries altogether and near the top even of the European countries[1]. Curiously, there are some discrepancies…
It’s always election season in Europe – dozens of competitive multi-party democracies packed onto a single continent will do that. Among those heading to the polls later this year are the Germans, choosing the future path for Europe’s most populous country and main economic powerhouse with great sway in the EU’s politics. Recently, the German…
Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism Historical overview of the region’s democratization and backsliding When the “communist” dictatorships of Eastern Europe fell, one by one, in 1989 – and, with the exception of Romania, in a remarkably peaceful fashion – western euphoria was great. These countries and their people, newly “liberated” from their…
Linus HoellerNorthwestern UniversityReporting on the ground from the nation’s third-largest city, Chicago Nearly three weeks after an eventful election in the former British colony known formally as the United States of America, the incumbent far-right president D. Trump has yet to concede to his victorious centrist challenger J. Biden, calling about an unprecedented democratic crisis….
How Trump and Covid have sowed division and fear of violence in Chicago’s suburbia and around the country