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1. Populist Neo-Nationalism: The Example of Austria

Author:
Maria Marczewska-Rytko
Publication Date:
01-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
This article aims to analyze the phenomenon of populist neo-nationalism in Austria and answer the following research questions: 1. How can populism and its type of populist neo-nationalism be characterized?; 2. What are the determinants of populist neonationalism in Austria? 3. What are the ways populist neo-nationalism has been utilized in Austria? The Chantal Mouffe thesis was verified, according to which the development of populism is a response to the shortcomings of liberal and deliberative democracies. The research process used a methodology typical of the social sciences, especially the political sciences. Since the 1980s, we have addressed the growing importance of radical right-wing populism in European politics. Some researchers refer to this phenomenon as new populism or populist neo-nationalism. The party’s growing importance since 1986 was related, among other things, to the principles of Euroscepticism it proclaimed and its demands to limit or even ban immigration. The FPÖ’s achieved the most tremendous success under the government of Jörg Haider. Its entry into the ruling coalition has confused international relations.
Topic:
Nationalism, Populism, and Neo-Nationalism
Political Geography:
Europe and Austria

2. Rallying Around the Flag: War Challenges and Civic Mobilization in UkraineRallying Around the Flag: War Challenges and Civic Mobilization in Ukraine

Author:
Mykola Riabhuk
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
Ukraine’s resilience in the first months of Russian aggression came as a great surprise to both its Moscow adversaries and Western partners. Very few experts expected Ukraine to withstand the all-out military assault of the alleged second-best army in the world, and virtually no one believed that it would be able to fight back. An overblown image of Russian strength and military prowess may be one reason for this, but probably more significant was a protracted neglect and depreciation of Ukraine in both Western media and political circles. All of a sudden, it appeared that neither the state—broadly described as weak, corrupt, and dysfunctional—collapsed under the tremendous military assault, nor the society—broadly stereotyped as divided, conflicted, and arguably balancing at the verge of a civil war—broke down for the proverbial two parts. One may presume either that some negative features and tendencies of Ukraine’s development were exaggerated or that some positive tendencies were neglected, undermined, or both. To elucidate the issue, I proceed in three steps. First, I outline briefly the real curses that plagued the Ukrainian state and society after the fall of communism and provide some reasons for international skepticism in regard to the newborn country. Second, I argue that very important and mostly positive (although incoherent and sluggish) changes had occurred in Ukraine in the past 30 years, so that the Russian aggression neither established any new patterns for Ukraine’s development, nor shifted the country into a new direction, but rather accelerated the prior processes and solidified the existing tendencies. Third, I examine the ongoing civic mobilization in Ukraine as a way of accumulating social capital that may play a crucial role in Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction and modernization.
Topic:
Nationalism, Reconciliation, Mobilization, and Russia-Ukraine War
Political Geography:
Europe and Ukraine

3. Collaborators of the New Order—Fascists, Nationalists, Traitors, and Opportunists in occupied Western Europe: An Interview with David Alegre

Author:
David Alegre
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The Toynbee Prize Foundation
Abstract:
Empires are not ruled only by force. Some degree of resignation or collaboration from local populations is needed. Despite its brief lifespan, the Third Reich was no stranger to this logic. In Western Europe, tens of thousands of European citizens took part in Nazi imperial policies of domination and spoilation, spurred on by fear of losing an unrepeatable opportunity and inspired by the dazzling triumphs of Hitler’s Germany. Such Nazi collaborators are the main subject of David Alegre’s most recent book, Colaboracionistas. Europa Occidental y el Nuevo Orden Nazi (Galaxia Gutenberg, 2022).Born in Teruel, Spain in 1984, this researcher and lecturer at the Autonomous University of Barcelona delves into collaborators’ experiences, their mental universes, their political strategies, and their stormy relations with the German Nazis, including the creation of volunteer units for war against the Soviet Union. Far from seeing themselves as mere pawns, the collaborators believed that close and loyal cooperation with the occupiers would be the fastest and most effective way to promote their personal interests and political projects. Marginalized by their convictions as traitors and persecuted by the Resistance, they would end up signing a blood pact with the occupiers, contributing to the plunder of their countries, and pushing their communities to the brink of civil war.
Topic:
Nationalism, History, Fascism, World War II, Interview, and Collaboration
Political Geography:
Europe and Western Europe

4. One year of the Meloni government: a tortuous but determined path towards Europe

Author:
Lorenzo Castellani
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Robert Schuman Foundation (RSF)
Abstract:
The first year of the Meloni government has revealed a complex political picture: elements of the nationalist right and centrist and also moderate tendencies have intertwined. The coalition that governs Italy shows its "right side" in policies linked to the family, civil rights and immigration, while its "moderate side" is expressed in international relations, the European sphere and budgetary policies. This political balancing act has created a number of ambiguities. For reasons of state and the quest for consensus, the government walks a tightrope between conservatism and moderation, euroscepticism and integration, identity, and liberalism. But it is difficult to grasp the meaning of these oscillations without understanding the context of the September 2022 elections and the historical context that weighs on the current government. Giorgia Meloni (Fratelli d'Italia, ECR) won thanks to several factors, including some judicious choices on her part and mistakes and divisions on the part of her opponents. However, the victory of the "centre-right" led by Giorgia Meloni was not a plebiscite: it was the victory with the lowest percentage of consensus compared to Silvio Berlusconi, and also the lowest voter turnout. Two fundamental elements played in Giorgia Meloni's favour: the divisions between Enrico Letta's Democratic Party (PD), Giuseppe Conte's 5-Star Movement (M5S) and Matteo Renzi's Centre List; and the erosion of the political credibility of these opponents because of their experience in government, since all three had been Presidents of the Council. Consequently, Giorgia Meloni was able to present herself to the electorate as the only new political offer, the only female politician with her reputation still intact and, of course, the only possible guarantor of post-election stability. It is not so much the issue of conservatism, Euroscepticism and nationalism that has tipped the Italian electorate to the right over the last two years, but a set of conditions inherent to Giorgia Meloni herself. Indeed, the leader of Fratelli d'Italia spent much of the election campaign assuring international observers and the financial markets of her reliability on foreign and economic policy. In many areas (public finances, energy diversification, the recovery plan and the budget), she claimed a degree of continuity with the previous government of national unity chaired by Mario Draghi. In many respects, therefore, the electoral victory of the Right was a "cold" one, resulting from the absence of alternatives, the divisions of its opponents and the lack of political strength of Italy's other leaders. This is the scenario that explains the victory of the centre-right. On the other hand, if we want to understand the reasons for some of the attitudes of the Right in office, we need to look at a more cautious historical dynamic linked both to the political decade that has just passed in Italy and to the political roots of the Right.
Topic:
Nationalism, Domestic Politics, Right-Wing Politics, and Giorgia Meloni
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

5. Religious activity and expression of national identity of Ukrainians during the introduction of the new Soviet ritual: 1960’s–1970’s

Author:
Nadia Kindrachuk
Publication Date:
09-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:
Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:
The party ideologues of the Soviet totalitarian state artificially developed and actively introduced into the life of the titular nation of the Ukrainian SSR a new Soviet ritualism, the main goal of which was to raise from every Ukrainian a Russified citizen of the Soviet type without national identity and religious beliefs, with a Russian consciousness, mentality and language. The article proves that the ancient church and religious traditions and customs of the Ukrainian people continued to be a part of the everyday culture of Ukrainians. The religious activity of representatives of the Ukrainian ethnic group was especially observed during the celebration of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter and other church holidays. And although the number of adherents of religious rites in the republic was different – from less in the East to more in the West, Christian values, despite atheism, continued to be the basis of the spiritual life of the absolute majority of Ukrainians.
Topic:
Nationalism, Religion, Ethnicity, and Identity
Political Geography:
Europe, Ukraine, and Soviet Union

6. Nationalism, enmity and reconciliation: Turkish party supporters’ polarized views on Greece

Author:
Evangelos Areteos
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
Abstract:
Supporters of the current government in Turkey have significantly stronger nationalistic attitudes towards Greece and Greeks than the supporters of the opposition parties. Turkey is extremely polarized along party lines. Religion and education significantly shape perceptions in both Turkey and Greece. In Greece, the levels of nationalism towards Turkey are significantly higher than they are in Turkey towards Greece, but vary far less across the political spectrum.
Topic:
Nationalism, Public Opinion, Reconciliation, AKP, and Polarization
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, Middle East, and Greece

7. Nationalism, Sovereignism, Virilism: the sources of Russia's war against Ukraine

Author:
François Hublet
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Robert Schuman Foundation (RSF)
Abstract:
Because war is the ultimate negation of all autonomy, all freedom and, a fortiori, all democracy, maintaining peace is the first of political necessities. Post-war Europe[1] knew this only too well. In the industrial age, education for peace and tolerance has become the condition for the survival of humanity: according to Adorna, "all political education must have at its centre the demand that Auschwitz cannot be repeated[2]”, not only because horror is imprescriptible, but because, in the absence of consistent education, it is destined to reproduce itself and sweep away the entire civilisation in which it is rooted. With the return of war in Europe, the question of collective education cannot be eluded. The mental patterns that led - directly or indirectly - to the massacres in Ukraine will have to be questioned in depth, lest any future peace be obliterated in advance, since "no peace treaty can be considered as such, if it secretly reserves for itself some subject for starting war again[3]”
Topic:
Nationalism, Sovereignty, History, and Russia-Ukraine War
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Ukraine

8. Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union

Author:
Filip Ejdus
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
According to the master commemorative narrative of the EU, the European integration project represents a break with the violent European past characterised by fragmentation and nationalism, which culminated in World War Two and the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism. However, recent scholarship has criticised the omission of 19th and 20th-century European colonialism from the memory narratives advanced by the EU. In this article, I use the permanent exhibition in the House of European History (HEH) in Brussels to take this insight one step further and make two arguments. Firstly, I show that it is not only colonialism that is erased from official memory but, more broadly, empires and imperialism, although most European history over the past 2000 years was imperial. Secondly, I understand this “imperial amnesia” as an anxiety-controlling mechanism aimed at reducing the dissonance between the self-proclaimed image of a normative and civilian power on the one hand and imperial-like tendencies in its behaviour on the other.
Topic:
Nationalism, Regional Cooperation, European Union, and Integration
Political Geography:
Europe

9. The Rise of Nationalism: Lessons from Europe

Author:
Sivamohan Valluvan and Leon Sealey-Huggins
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
Sivamohan Valluvan and Leon Sealey-Huggins discuss the rise of ethno-nationalism in Europe, and provides a helpful list on the actions that can be taken to counter ethno-nationalism – school curriculums that encourage empathy and provide historic context, tackling fearmongering and lies in the media, and a call for political leaders to resist cheap, short-term anti-immigration scapegoating.
Topic:
Nationalism, Immigration, Curriculum, and Ethnonationalism
Political Geography:
Europe

10. Book Talk. Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives

Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute for a presentation of the book Contemporary Ukrainian Art and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives (ibidem Press, 2021). The event will feature presentations by the volume’s editor Svitlana Biedarieva and contributors Ieva Astahovska, Olena Martynyuk, and Margaret Tali with moderator Mark Andryczyk (Harriman Institute). This volume focuses on political and social expressions in contemporary art of Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. It explores the transformations that art in Ukraine and the Baltic states has undergone since their independence in 1991, discussing how the conflicts and challenges of the last three decades have impacted the reconsideration of identity and fostered resistance of culture against economic and political crises. It analyzes connections between the past and the present as seen by the artists in these countries and looks at their visions of the future. Contemporary Ukrainian art portrays various perspectives, addressing issues from controversial historical topics to the present military conflict in the East of the country. Baltic art speaks out against the erasure of past historical traumas and analyzes the pertinence of its cultural scene to the European community. The contributions in this collection open a discussion of whether there is a single paradigm that describes the contemporary processes of art production in Ukraine and the Baltic countries. With contributions by Ieva Astahovska, Svitlana Biedarieva, Kateryna Botanova, Olena Martynyuk, Vytautas Michelkevičius, Lina Michelkevičė, Margaret Tali, and Jessica Zychowicz.
Topic:
Nationalism, Arts, Culture, and Identity
Political Geography:
Europe, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia