Right Wing Terrorism & Extremism

Learning Objectives:
On completion of this unit you will be able to:

• Explain what is meant by the term right wing terrorism.

• Describe the reasons why right wing terrorism is becoming a growing challenge for Western security forces.

Required Reading:
In January 2017, German police officers were deployed across
Germany to raid apartments belonging to the right wing extremist
Reichsbűrger group. The group’s followers, like the Sovereign
Citizens movement in the US, reject the authority of the state and
often refuse to pay taxes or fines. Some members have planned
attacks on police officers, asylum seekers and Jews. The police raids
were triggered by intelligence that the Reichsbűrger group had
formed a terrorist organization and had started to procure arms and
©: Associated Press
ammunition. But like most right wing extremist organizations,
police found little evidence that the Reichsbűrger group had The most notorious recent right wing
terrorist, Anders Breivik, gives a Nazi salute
embarked on a formal terrorist campaign. Right wing extremism is in court in Norway, March 2016.
a growing phenomenon in Europe and North America, but there a
few right wing terrorist groups. Rather this form of terrorism tends to involve uncoordinated, spontaneous
bombings, shootings and knifings usually perpetrated by so called lone actors.

Right wing extremists support a variety of often linked causes including white supremacy, anti-government,
neo Nazism and racism. It is not a new phenomenon, but recently there has been an increase in right wing
violence caused by fears about mass immigration and a growing Islamophobia, not least because of jihadist
attacks in Europe and North America. As it tends to take the form of isolated attacks and rarely involves
mass casualties, right wing violence does not attract the attention afforded to atrocities inspired by ISIS or
al Qaeda (AQ). Governments have not given the same degree of scrutiny to right wing violence as they do
to Islamist extremists and consequently the security forces have sometimes been taken by surprise when
right wing motivated terrorist attacks occur. Lone actor, Anders Breivik remained undetected until he
mounted a bombing attack in Oslo and a mass shooting in Utøya that killed a total of 77 people in 2011.
The same year, German authorities discovered the Nationalist Socialist Underground. This group had
assassinated 10 people and conducted 2 bombings over a fourteen year period without being identified by
the police or intelligence services.
Problems defining right wing terrorism have hampered efforts to identify and counter this form of politically
motivated violence. Acts of right wing terrorism are often dealt with as a “hate crimes” directed against a
particular ethnic, racial or religious group. Hate crime has been described as “a close cousin of terrorism”,
but scholars and lawyers disagree whether the two terms are synonymous. Certainly, unlike terrorist attacks,
much hate crime violence is unplanned, spontaneous and small scale. For example, the violence directed
at Muslims following mass casualty jihadist attacks in London and Paris was labelled as hate crime rather
than right wing terrorism. Analyst Daniel Koehler has argued that hate crimes can “provide a bridge and an
ideological testing phase” for actual terrorism.

Despite a plethora of self-proclaimed right wing extremists in Europe and North America, no recent right
wing terrorist movement has emerged with a coherent ideology, charismatic leadership or organization to
match well established Salafi jihadist and ethnic separatist terrorist groups. Right wing extremists usually
operate as individuals outside of any formal terrorist organizational structure. Rather they belong to more
loosely affiliated groups that meet informally to train with weapons, discuss ideology, socialize and
occasionally plot terrorism. But right wing extremists are by no means inward looking in their thinking and

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readily embrace influences from neo-fascist or white supremacy movements internationally. Like jihadists,
right wingers can share tactics, ideas and develop an identity over the Internet. Dylann Roof, a white
supremacist who murdered nine black worshippers in a church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015
frequented right wing South African web sites and draped himself in apartheid-era flags. A number of
members of the English Defence League (EDL) expressed admiration for Anders Breivik viewing him as a
role model for common European resistance against the twin threats from Islam and Marxism
The problem of right wing terrorism has been underestimated, although statistics, at least in North America,
illustrate the extent of the problem. According to the Counter Terrorism Center (CTC) violent right wing
extremists accounted for over 50% of terrorist fatalities in the US between 1954 – 2000. Since 2001, right
wing extremists have murdered 48 people, as opposed to 45 killed by Salafi Jihadist terrorists. Since January
2015, the FBI has arrested more American citizens plotting violent attacks against Muslims than it has
Muslim refugees or former refugees involved in terrorism; the Trump administration’s travel ban illustrates
the general misperception regarding the main sources of terrorism in America. In contrast to the US, figures
for right wing terrorist attacks in Europe held by Europol appear much lower, for example, only around 6%
of the total from 1950 – 2004. This apparent anomaly has largely been caused by Europol accounting. The
vast majority of violent attacks committed by right wing extremists have not been recorded as terrorism by
Europol, which is due to the legal definitions of these crimes in European states. This in turn suggests a
reason why the threat of right wing radicalization has not received the same official counter terrorism
attention as that directed at Islamist extremism. For example, the UK’s PREVENT anti-extremism strategy did
not emphasize right wing radicalization until the review of 2011. In a speech in March 2017, the EU Security
Union Commissioner raised concerns about the growing problem of right wing terrorism in Europe, which
he complained was “less reported and received less attention” from both the media and general public.
Right wing terrorists often support the status quo during an ethno-separatist or revolutionary terrorist
campaign. Therefore, they can receive direct or tacit backing from elements within the state security services
during counter terrorist operations. Spain’s long battle against ETA provides a notable historical example.
During the 1980s the right wing Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL) conducted a terrorist campaign
against members of ETA and Basque nationalist politicians. GAL was backed and assisted by reactionary
police officers. Investigations into GAL’s activities caused significant embarrassment to the Spanish
government and some police officers and the Minister of Internal Affairs were jailed. So called right wing
“death squads” have been a notable feature of many counter terrorism campaigns, particularly in Central
and Latin America. These groups can bring short term tactical benefits to a hard pressed government, but
their methods undermine government legitimacy and the rule of law. Ultimately, the use of terrorists to
defeat terrorists can destroy the fabric and integrity of the state. A perception that right wing terrorist attacks
are backed by shadowy “fascist” elements within the government has fueled many conspiracy theories. A
favorite example is the Bologna station bombing in Italy in 1980 by the neo-fascist Nuclei Armati
Rivoluzioni, which killed 85 people. This has been variously attributed to the Italian Secret Service, NATO,
the PLO and the CIA.

Discussion Questions:
1. To what extent is there a right wing terrorist threat in your country? What motivates these individuals and
groups to commit attacks?
2. How can states deal with support for right wing violence from within political parties and the security
forces?

Additional Resources:
Koehler, Daniel, “Right-Wing Extremism and Terrorism in Europe: Current Developments and Issues for the Future,”
PRISM, 6(2):85–104.

Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. “The New Face of Global White Nationalist Terror,” Foreign Policy, June 25, 2015. [Online
registration may be required to view article.]

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