Right-Wing Terrorism and Violence in Western Europe, 1990 - 2021
Ungdom og ekstremisme 2021
I 2021 var det 10 år siden terrorangrepet i Oslo og på Utøya 22. juli 2011. Siden den gang har en ny generasjon unge mennesker vokst opp. Denne generasjonen har vært eksponert for terrorhandlinger i andre land, og dessverre også i Norge. Samtidig har norske ungdommer vært mottagere av ulike forebyggende tiltak rettet mot nettopp radikalisering og voldelig ekstremisme, gjennom blant annet skolens og andre kommunale og statlige aktørers arbeid.
I den anledning ønsket Kunnskapsdepartementet (KD), ved Integreringsavdelingen (Integreringsavdelingen tilhører nå Arbeid- og inkluderingsdepartementet), å fremskaffe kunnskap om ungdoms kunnskap om ekstremisme og kjennskap til forebyggende hjelpetiltak der de bor. Senter for ekstremismeforskning (C-REX) ved Universitetet i Oslo fikk oppdraget med å gjennomføre en studie om ungdommers vurderinger av ekstremisme i Norge i dag, og deres kjennskap til og villighet til å bruke forebyggingsapparatet mot radikalisering og voldelig ekstremisme.
Denne rapporten er det første resultatet av dette arbeidet.
Norske lokalpolitikeres erfaringer med trusler, hatytringer og plagsomme henvendelser
Dette korte notatet av Anders Ravik Jupskås presenterer noen få funn fra en spørreundersøkelse om trusler, hatefulle ytringer og andre plagsomme henvendelser blant norske lokalpolitikere. Spørreundersøkelsen er del av en større undersøkelse om lokalpolitikeres arbeidsvilkår. Undersøkelsen gjennomføres av Telemarksforskning og Senter for ekstremismeforskning (C-REX) på oppdrag fra Kommunal- og moderniseringsdepartementet.
C-REX Research Report 2/2021 (PDF)
Right-Wing Terrorism and Violence in Western Europe, 1990 - 2020
The year 2020 was extraordinary with regards to the number of unsettling events with a potential impact on right-wing terrorism and violence (RTV). The COVID-19 pandemic generated conspiracy theories, economic crisis, and growing animosity toward European governments, fuelling far-right grievances. Controversy concerning the 2021 US presidential election caused unrest and revolutionary aspirations among far-right actors. And the US police murder of George Floyd generated new waves of Black Lives Matter protests across the world, at times confronted by violent counter-protesters from the far right. To what extent did these events affect right-wing terrorism and violence in Western Europe?
In this RTV Trend Report, which is the third of its kind, we present new and updated data on severe right-wing attacks and plots that occurred in Western Europe in 2020. We also compare these data with previous years to identify new developments and capture trends. Our review identifies three key insights. First, relatively few severe attacks motivated by discontent or conspiracies relating to COVID-19 were registered, and most of these attacks were spontaneous and committed by groups of youths. Second, attacks targeting black people appear to become more frequent in Western Europe, as are registered attacks committed by uniformed personnel on active duty.
Finally, while 2020 only saw two attacks with a fatal outcome, the number of attack plots rose considerably. Besides describing these developments in more detail, this year’s RTV Trend Report also introduces several additions to the dataset, including two new perpetrator categories, a more structured and systematic perpetrator coding scheme, and a dataset with all the reviewed cases that were not included in the final version.
Right-Wing Terrorism and Violence in Western Europe, 1990 - 2019
Right-wing terrorism and violence were on the agenda in many Western countries in 2019. The annual report from the Munich Security Conference, the world’s largest gathering of international security policy makers and analysts, presented ‘right-wing extremism’ as a key issue alongside ‘space security’, ‘climate security’ and ‘the technology race’. In many countries, the security services pointed to the growing threat of right-wing extremism. The main reason behind the increasing attention was an apparent emerging global trend of lone-actor terrorists carrying out, or trying to carry out, mass-casualty attacks, inspired by the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 15 March 2019. Several similar attacks and plots took place across the globe in the subsequent months, including in the US (Poway and El Paso), Germany (Halle), Norway (Bærum) and the UK (Luton), though none were nearly as deadly as the one in Christchurch. Rather than being part of an organized transnational terrorist network, these lone actors seem to have been connected only by reputation, through online platforms in which perpetrators of mass killings are celebrated as heroes and role models, most notably 4chan/8chan and Telegram.
While this new trend is indeed worrying, not only because the perpetrators intend to kill as many as possible, but also because it is difficult to assess the intentions and capabilities of internet-based subcultures, this report shows that the year 2019 in Western Europe was neither very violent in terms of fatal attacks, nor particularly deadly in terms of fatalities. Moreover, the trend report shows that most (severe) right-wing violence is not related to internet-inspired lone actors committing or trying to commit mass murder using bombs or firearms. In fact, lone actors are behind only a minority of (severe) violent events, and the most common ‘weapons’ used are not firearms, but fists, feet and blunt instruments.
In this report, which is the second of its kind, we present an overview of right-wing terrorism and severe violence in Western Europe in 2019, including the number of violent events, the perpetrator types, the targeted groups and the weapons used. Looking at fatal events only, we also discuss important long-term and short-term trends in (severe forms of) right-wing violence since 1990. The report also includes snapshot case studies of three countries with relatively high levels of violence (i.e. Germany, Greece and Spain), as well as more detail on two selected topics: online-inspired terrorism and attacks against politicians.
Right-Wing Terrorism and Violence in Western Europe, 1990 - 2018
The Right-Wing Terrorism and Violence (RTV) dataset was built following the 22 July 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway and the discovery of the German terrorist cell Nationalsozialistischer Underground the same year. These events uncovered a gap in our knowledge about recent trends in right-wing terrorism and violence in Western Europe. Some existing datasets developed by scholars, such as the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and Terrorism in Western Europe: Events Data (TWEED), do cover right-wing terrorist events. Similarly, some hate crime statistics and reports from anti-racist organizations also cover right-wing violence. However, existing data collected by scholars and organizations commonly suffer from one or several methodological pitfalls, including problems of availability, representativeness, measurement validity, replicability, and comparability.
To narrow the existing knowledge gap, as well as address some of the methodological limitations of other datasets, the RTV dataset offers a systematic assessment of the most severe forms of violent attacks and plots in 18 West European countries since 1990 whose target selection is based on right-wing beliefs.
By ‘most severe forms of violent attacks and plots’, we mean cases in which the perpetrator(s) appear determined or willing to inflict deadly or severely disabling physical injury on the victim(s), as opposed to lesser forms of violence of a more symbolic or demonstrative nature. More specifically, the dataset includes (1) all events with fatal or near fatal outcomes; (2) events in which potentially lethal weapons have been used offensively, such as knives, guns, or bombs; (3) severe beatings leading to hospitalisation, coma, unconsciousness, or other severe injuries; (4) terrorist attack plots; and (5) discoveries of large weapons caches belonging to right-wing extremists.
How to manage returned foreign fighters and other Syria travellers? Measures for safeguarding and follow-up
This report is the result of a research assignment from the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security. The objective of the assignment was to obtain more knowledge about measures that may be employed for managing, following-up and safeguarding foreign fighters who return to Norway, including imprisonment and different models for reintegration. More specifically, the objectives were to:
- Increase knowledge about potential measures for managing and safeguarding individuals who have returned to Norway after having been foreign fighters.
- Increase knowledge about the challenges faced and measures initiated by selected European countries in the work on managing, following-up and safeguarding foreign fighters.
- Identify and describe one or more particularly successful models for reintegration. Identify the roles of different sectors, as well as required expertise in the reintegration work.
- Identify good models for coordination between the different stakeholders in the reintegration work, including statutory basis, options and practices.