In this provocative analysis of global politics, the anthropologist Marc Abélès argues that the meaning and aims of political action have radically changed in the era of globalization. As dangers such as terrorism and global warming have moved to the fore of global consciousness, foreboding has replaced the belief that tomorrow will be better than today. Survival, outlasting the uncertainties and threats of a precarious future, has supplanted harmonious coexistence as the primary goal of politics. Abélès contends that this political reorientation has changed our priorities and modes of political action, and generated new debates and initiatives. The proliferation of supranational and transnational organizations—from the European Union to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to Oxfam—is the visible effect of this radical transformation in our relationship to the political realm. Areas of governance as diverse as the economy, the environment, and human rights have been partially taken over by such agencies. Non-governmental organizations in particular have become linked with the mindset of risk and uncertainty; they both reflect and help produce the politics of survival. Abélès examines the new global politics, which assumes many forms and is enacted by diverse figures with varied sympathies: the officials at meetings of the WTO and the demonstrators outside them, celebrity activists, and online contributors to international charities. He makes an impassioned case that our accounts of globalization need to reckon with the preoccupations and affiliations now driving global politics. The Politics of Survival was first published in France in 2006. This English-language edition has been revised and includes a new preface.

Fascist, authoritarian, anti-Semitic and extremist movements made a powerful and devastating contribution to the 20th century. While the experiences of the 1930s and 1940s served to delegitimise such forces, contemporary Europe and the USA have witnessed the resurgence of extreme right-wing politics. Rapid socio-economic change, the appeal of nationalism, the failures of mainstream political parties and intense campaigning around issues such as immigration, security and unemployment have all fuelled the phenomenon. This book, a sequel to The Extreme Right in Europe and the USA, provides a comprehensive and analysis of the nature and prevalence of extreme right movements in Europe – both West and East – and in the USA at the turn of the millennium. The authors reveal the uneven process of extreme right-wing revival, which has varied from country to country depending on specific political cultures and circumstances, with some movements confined to the margins while others have moved towards the political mainstream. They examine the ideas, policies, personalities, organizations, voters and reasons for the success of extreme right-wing movements in a range of countries, as well as providing a more general examination of the nature and politics of the extreme right.

This book is a concise critical introduction to one of the most emergent themes in late twentieth-century history, politics and society and looks at how extremist and nationalist popular fronts have grown under the influence of modern-day issues.

European challenges call for European responses. The spread of extremist and xenophobic attitudes and the proliferation of right-wing political movements are challenges confronting all of Europe. This book provides a conceptual framework for comparing right-wing radicalism in Europe and offers country-specific data on the right-wing radicalism and extremism. It constitutes a solid base of knowledge on the current situation in ten European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). Key topics include the success stories of right-wing radical political parties, the strength of their movements, the existence of sub-cultural milieus of the radical right and of corresponding factors that influence the rise of the radical right in Europe.

How do right-wing extremist organizations throughout the world use the Internet as a tool for communication and recruitment? What is its role in identity-building within radical right-wing groups and how do they use the Internet to set their agenda, build contacts, spread their ideology and encourage mobilization? This important contribution to the field of Internet politics adopts a social movement perspective to address and examine these important questions. Conducting a comparative content analysis of more than 500 extreme right organizational web sites from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, it offers an overview of the Internet communication activities of these groups and systematically maps and analyses the links and structure of the virtual communities of the extreme right. Based on reports from the daily press the book presents a protest event analysis of right wing groups’ mobilisation and action strategies, relating them to their online practices. In doing so it exposes the new challenges and opportunities the Internet presents to the groups themselves and the societies in which they exist.

In Europe, the far right is gaining momentum on the streets and in parliaments. By taking a close look at contemporary practices and strategies of far-right actors, the present volume explores this right-ward shift of European publics and politics. It assembles analyses of changing mobilization patterns and their effects on the local, national and transnational level. International experts, among them Tamir Bar-On, Liz Fekete, Matthew Kott, and Graham Macklin, scrutinize new forms of coalition building, mainstreaming and transnationalization tendencies as aspects of diversified far-right politics in Europe.