This section provides review coverage of recent contributions to research into various aspects of ‘extremism and democracy’. We include shorter book notes (150-300 words) and as well as more substantial reviews (600-900 words) of books that are of particular interest to group members. In addition to providing a broad range of reviews the team also welcome suggestions for future book reviews (including your own) or ideas for review symposia. If you would like to review one of the currently available titles (below) please contact one of the reviews editors: Matthew Goodwin(University of Manchester, email: matthew.goodwin@manchester.ac.uk) or Sarah de Lange (Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute and University of Amsterdam, email: sarah.delange@eui.eu and s.l.delange@uva.nl). The current issue of e-Extreme contains reviews of the books listed bellow. Please click on the title of the book to directly navigate to the book review you are interested in. Anna Cento Bull, Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation, Berghahn Books, 2007, 182 pp., ISBN 978-1-84545-335-0. Jo Reger, Daniel J. Myers and Rachel L. Einwohner (eds.), Identity Work in Social Movements, University of Minnesota Press, 2008, 312 pp., ISBN: 978-0-8166-51405
Thomas J. Biersteker and Sue E. Eckert (eds.), Countering the Financing of Terrorism, Routledge, 2008, 332 pp., ISBN10 0-415-39643-3 (pb).
Jeanne K. Giraldo and Harold A. Trinkunas (eds.), Terrorism Financing and State Responses, Stanford University Press, 2007, 355 pp., ISBN 978-0-8047-5565-8 (pb).
James G. Shields, The Extreme Right in France: From Pétain to Le Pen, Routledge, 2008, 432 pp., ISBN 978-0-415-097550 (hb), ISBN 978-0-415-37200-8 (pb).
BOOK REVIEWS
Anna Cento Bull, Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation, Berghahn Books, 2007, 182 pp., ISBN 978-1-84545-335-0. Reviewed by Manuela Caiani (European University Institute)
Throughout various European (and other) countries, an increasing intensity of extremist right-wing activities can be observed. This concerns both institutionalised politics, either the electoral success of right-wing political parties in parliamentary elections and their successful recruitment of new party members, but also the number and intensity of (violent and non-violent) incidents that involved right-wing activists. Italy it is not an exception. The book Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation by Anna Cento Bull, through its up-to-date analyses of the role of extreme right groups in the (past) Italian political life, could not better fit the renewed extensive interest in this phenomenon. This book compares and contrasts the narrative put forward by the Italian radical and post fascist right-wing through its political representatives, intellectuals and protagonists, with the judicial findings on the political violence perpetrated in the 1960s and 1970s in Italy, with specific reference to terrorist bombing massacres collectively known as stragismo. The book is divided in two parts. In part one, following the most recent investigations and trials, the author undertakes the hard task of offering a balanced, evidence based reconstruction of Stragismo and the ‘Strategy of Tension’ that characterized Italy during the period of the Cold War. In the first part the book tries also to give a more sophisticated reading of the judicial evidence, by reporting the mainstream interpretations in the form of interviews and/or books which take into account these findings and/or are in accordance with them (e.g. interviews given following investigations into the Piazza Fontana massacre). As showed in chapters two and three, the judicial investigations and trials on the massacres have uncovered much vital information regarding the nature and scope of the Strategy of Tension and the role played by various protagonists, above all radical right groups. Furthermore, they shed light in much greater detail than before on the composition as well as the criminal activities of various subversive organizations, for example operations carried out by Ordine Nuovo, as well as The Nuclei per la Difesa dello Stato and the MAR, Avanguardia Nazionale. Despite these findings, however, the author concludes that criminal justice “has only partially been achieved” and “the truth about the massacres has only patchily been revealed” (p.32). In chapter four there is also an attempt to reconstruct the role of the armed forces and intelligence structures in stragismo, interpreting it as ‘connivances, cover-ups and false leads’ (despistaggi) on the part of certain sections of the armed forces and the intelligence services, at specific times and for specific purposes (p.45). It is worth noting
that before discussing the research questions – and this is one of its merits – the book gives an overview of the political violence carried out in Italy during the Cold War, providing a definition for this violence and a brief outline of Italian neofascism after 1945 that helps to place the study in context (chapter 1). In part two, and by adopting a ‘narrative psychology perspective’, the author examines the reconstructions of these same events put forward by representatives and sympathizers of the neo and postfascist right (in particular the Alleanza Nazionale), both in the form of intellectuals, journalists and politicians, and in the form of ex-leaders of Italian neofascist groups operating in the 1960s and 1970s. This second part undoubtedly represents a major contribution to the scientific research on political violence and, in particular, on extreme right violence by offering (and contributing to overcome the lack of) empirical data from an actor-oriented approach. In line with the recent ‘narrative turn’ in social science (p.128), but also the ‘cultural turn’ in social movement research, Bull’s book considers the ways in which the collective actors involved in the extreme right construct and communicate their (internal and external) reality. It accomplish this task carefully by analyzing self narratives (consisting, among other biographical materials, of interviews granted to the author) of both first and second generation neofascist leaders, though in particular the stories of Stefano delle Chiaie, Gabriele Adinolfi and Giuseppe Valerio Fioravanti. Each of these individuals, the author notes, ‘can be considered emblematic of a group, a strategy and even a generation’ (p.128). Making use of narrative psychology and narrative analysis theory, the chapter analyses not only their attitudes when confronted with charges of stragismo, and their own reconstruction of the Strategy of Tension, but also their reassessment of their past political militancy from the perspective of the present (their ‘beliefs about societal goals’, ‘beliefs about the adversary group’, and ‘beliefs about the in-group’, p.96). The crucial importance of this empirical material is evident when considering that, as far as the protagonists of right-wing violence are concerned, the sources tend to be scarce, particularly compared to those available in relation to ex-members of extreme left organizations (p.127). Furthermore, in its second part the book seeks to go beyond the main questions about right-wing extremism, leading to wider implications for the current and future life of liberal democracies. Indeed, by applying the literature on ‘truth telling’ and ‘national reconciliation’ (p.93), the book addresses the question of how far Italy has progressed on the road toward becoming a fully fledged democracy that is capable of overcoming entrenched ideological divisions. In particular, the focus is on the transformation of the old neofascist Movimento Social Italiano (MSI) into the post fascist Alleanza Nazionale, and the extent to which the new party has established its democratic credentials through a critical reevaluation of its more recent past, distancing itself from the radical groups to its right and accepting the legitimacy of the judicial process as regards crimes related to stragismo (Chapter 5). With regards the findings of this analysis, as the author argues the contrast between the two reconstructions of the violent events of the 1960s and 1970s (i.e. the judicial and the neo and post fascist right) could not be greater. Indeed, the dominant narratives and self-narratives of the neo-and post fascists in relation tostragismo are in
total contrast to the judicial findings and mainstream interpretations. The main differences concern the targets and goals of this strategy, the role played by neofascism on the one hand and communism on the other, as well as, lastly, the nature of the judiciary. Among the right, the “judicial truth simply does not exist”, since it is either dismissed or ridiculed as being the product of a partisan and left-leaning judiciary or altogether ignored and ‘erased’ in their own reconstructions. As for the role of the radical right in stragismo, this is presented instead as having been a “scapegoat for other forces” (p.15), ranging from state and intelligence structures to Christian Democracy and the Communist party. As the author underlines, these stories, instead of constituting sources for reconstructing the past, emerge clearly as a plurality of voices through which a shared representation of a ‘community of belonging’ is affirmed and deeply felt grievances are expressed. This result, that is the most ‘puzzling’ to the author (p. 65), is also the most fascinating aspect of the book, showing that the current reconstructions of stragismo by both the neo- and the postfascist right offer a picture of sameness and continuity for an in-group which, de facto, has politically separated in two: with AN claiming discontinuity in respect to fascist past, and the smaller groups to its right reasserting their faith in fascism. In such narratives there is a uniform, overarching “master narrative” (that the author synthesizes as “narrative of Victimhood”, p.96), characterized by a strong sense of bitterness, grievance, self-victimization and demonization of ‘the other’. The narrators present the ‘in group’ systematically as a collective victim, establishing an implied equivalence between neofascism and oppressed and persecuted groups and between neofascist violence and defensive struggles to ensure the physical survival of the group. In short, the author concludes that the prevailing attitudes among both the radical and the postfascist right in relation to the trial verdicts and the role of neofascism in stragismo, is one of ‘nonreconciliation’. In this way, a ‘common history’ of the in-group is forcefully reasserted, perpetuating its distinctiveness, collective identity and continuity over time. In particular as for what concerns AN, the author argues that “despite the efforts of some of its leaders and above all its secretary” (p.104) the party clearly sees neofascism as an innocent victim of both its old adversary, the left, and of state structures. The author concludes that the ‘in-group’ encompasses both AN and the organizations which continue to subscribe to fascist ideals: differences of opinion as far as the reconstruction of neofascism, stragismo and the Strategy of Tension do exist but they cut across the divide between the neo- and the postfascist right.
Jo Reger, Daniel J. Myers and Rachel L. Einwohner (eds.), Identity Work in Social Movements, University of Minnesota Press, 2008, 312 pp., ISBN: 978-0-8166-51405
Reviewed by Matthew J. Goodwin (University of Manchester)
The focus of this edited volume is on the complexities of identity processes within collective efforts for social change, in particular the question of how participants in social movements arrive at their oppositional stance. To this end the book ‘explores the work involved in the construction, maintenance and renegotiation of collective identity in social movements’ (p.2) and is guided by two overarching themes: first, how movement participants themselves work to cultivate a sense of identity; second, the challenges and struggles that are involved in ‘identity work’, for example costs that may arise as a result of disagreements over movement identity. In this respect, the contributors continue earlier work on the importance of political identity, most notably that by Mary Bernstein (who, in the final chapter, presents a more articulated theory of identity empowerment and deployment in social movements). Moreover, recognizing that identities are also shaped by the surrounding environment, the contributors (to varying degrees) focus on the influence of factors at the macro, meso and micro level. In the process, a diverse range of case studies are included, not least white racialist groups, contemporary feminism, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, women activists in a Brazilian favela and lesbian and gay organizations. There are clear overlaps with the literature on extreme right parties which has similarly begun to look more closely at internal movement dynamics. The chapter by Schroer on the white racialist movement and his examination of the way in which activists use the Internet and framing activity to destigmatize their collective identity has obvious parallels with recent work on extreme right activism. Schroer goes further than most, examining the way in which racialist movements attempt to overcome their negative image in wider society through various framing strategies (albeit confined to Internet activity). Though political scientists may question the absence of more systematic research, the richness of the case study material and theoretical discussions over the role of identity in movement development will be of interest to those grappling to make sense of internal movement dynamics.
Thomas J. Biersteker and Sue E. Eckert (eds.), Countering the Financing of Terrorism, Routledge, 2008, 332 pp., ISBN10 0-415-39643-3 (pb). Jeanne K. Giraldo and Harold A. Trinkunas (eds.), Terrorism Financing and State Responses, Stanford University Press, 2007, 355 pp., ISBN 978-0-8047-5565-8 (pb).
Reviewed by Hans T. van der Veen (University of Amsterdam)
In the short interlude between the attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001 and the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 a window of opportunity existed for the United States to shoulder a multilateral effort to amend the anti-money laundering system with counter terrorist financing (CTF) regulations. Many of the coercive
strategies and policies that have since been subsumed under the ‘war on terrorism’ have now been discredited as counterproductive to the security, economic as well as political goals of the US and its – halfhearted – allies; whereas Afghanistan and Iraq have spiraled into bloodshed, destruction and hardship. The financial front of the war on terror has yet been managed in much more discrete and soft-handed ways. Although scores of charities and individuals have been blacklisted both by the UN and by individual jurisdictions, very few have been convicted for financing terror organizations. In contrast to much of the rest of the war on terror, CTF has now culminated in a much more sublime irony as financing the ‘terrorists’ has become the superior strategy to re-direct violence and improve security for both occupiers and the occupied. In October 2008 the Iraqi government took over part of the financial responsibilities of the US that had been disbursing $300 a month to every of the about 100.000 members of the “sons of Iraq” militias (a hotchpotch of disenfranchised former Baathists and other disgruntled Sunnites). In return for money and arms they where happy to give the occupying forces a break and turn their new might against foreign fighters and - in protection for sure - against their Shiite co-nationals. In fact, such a development has brought us back to the future, as in the Cold War era statesponsorship generally was the preferred method for controlling – and using – political violence. The 2008 credit crisis and the new American Presidency may - or may not - mark and end to this neo-liberal era of privatized violence, under-regulated (financial) markets and crime fare states, as modes of managing the relations between societies and the trans-border interests of constituencies. It is clear that present technologies of security dealing with surplus populations fail to contain the spread of shadow economies as little as diminishing the more explicit forms of contentious politics. Thus opportunities might arise to instigate efforts that could recalibrate social contracts between citizens, states and markets. Two recent books deal with this era of unending war against the destabilizing effects of inequality in power, wealth and security and their counterparts ‘crime’ and ‘terrorism’, yet in very different ways. Countering the Financing of Terrorism brings together scholars from criminology, security studies, political science and public administrations as well as public experts and a journalist, discussing the means and methods of financing groups engaged in political violence (mainly Islamist groups, and al Qaeda in particular) and the global measures by which such could be countered. The book arranges the issues analytically around the examination of the core assumptions that carry the regulatory response (sameness of terrorist groups, the importance of formal sector financial institutions, the need to regulate informal value transfer systems, the relevance of the “nexus” between terrorism and organized crime). In doing so, the contributions offer information on actors’ on both sides of the law, or rather only their financial and regulatory activities; without offering much meaning, analytical depth or understanding of the phenomena we are dealing with. The authors offer a rather sterile account of what the ‘terrorists’ do and what regulators do in terms of financing and counter financing. Trends are analyzed, regulatory responses are
evaluated, yet it appears hard to access the way actors combine political, economic and military strategies or how they interact with each other and broader sectors of society. What motivates actors on both sides of the law, what are the consequences of (financial) choices and opportunities they and their organizations confront, nor the question whether the source of financing makes any difference in the objectives, targets or methods remains quite underdeveloped questions. As the authors have no access to classified sources/ or may not even be sure such exist, we largely deal with familiar open source information. Contributions commendably refrain from much of the usual hyperbole and speculation, yet there is plenty of suggestion and insinuation hidden in the subtext of theoretical approaches and in the ways of framing the issues under consideration. In sum, in the period under review, al Qaeda evolved from a well structured training facility to a networked cell structure, and further into a brand name for any group feeling to enhance its impact by using it. Its sources of financing have developed in par, from donations through charities, to self-financing arrangements via legal businesses, to the use of petty crime as the main source of revenue. Regulatory responses lag behind these trends and unnecessarily burden financial institutions. Terrorism Financing and State Responses to the contrary is written by academics largely working for the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, the Department of Defense, the U.S. government as well as researchers and criminologist that appear sufficiently close to the Homeland Security Industry to understand its attractions and pitfalls as well as those of adventurism in foreign policies. Contributions are organized around thematic chapters and organizational and regional case studies. Much more percipient than in the Biersteker et al book contributors of this volume have an eye for the policy processes that influence the acceptance and implementation of regulations. A more comparative approach between both different types of politically violent organizations over time and region also adds much needed depth in understanding the interactions between international structures and domestic factors that explain diversity in outcomes and choices. Fruitful application of a political economy framework to understand actors and their interactions furthermore provides the much-needed conceptual way out Manichean dichotomies between terrorists, criminals and law enforcers, and start to open up the analysis to the eternal struggle of societies to get a hold on violent entrepreneurs on both sides of the law. In both volumes much mulling is done over alleged relations between crime and terrorism and than in particular the drug trade, but no analysis reaches the point of understanding that if such a relation exists this would be yet another major blowback of a previous protection racket by which coercive state actors acquired a regulatory monopoly over economic activities as well as arbitrary claims on citizens life, freedom and resources. In neither of these books we really learn who the people are that finance political violence, or commit it, what their motivations are or to what extent the source of financing influences their means and objectives. Many of the approaches in both books work on the assumption that much of the motivation of ‘terrorists’ is actually in the financial rewards of their activities. Whether this is a proposition that will stand up to reality or rather is a form of singing the world into existence by again seeing our own reflection rather than breaking the mirror in order to see behind it, remains to be seen.
James G. Shields, The Extreme Right in France: From Pétain to Le Pen, Routledge, 2008, 432 pp., ISBN 978-0-415-097550 (hb), ISBN 978-0-415-37200-8 (pb).
Reviewed by Tim Peace (European University Institute)
Given the extensive amount of attention the Front National and its leader Jean-Marie Le Pen have been given in the literature, one may be forgiven for treating the arrival of yet another book on the extreme right in France with a certain amount of scepticism. James Shields’ work follows in the footsteps of a series of offerings on the subject that appeared in the 1990s such as The National Front and French politics by Jonathan Marcus (1995), The French National Front : the extremist challenge to democracy by Harvey G. Simmons (1996), The politics of racism in France by Peter Fysh and Jim Wolfreys (1998), National Front in France: Ideology, Discourse and Power by Peter Davies (1999) and Edward G. De Clair’s Politics on the fringe (1999). More recently we have seen Catherine Fieschi’s Fascism, populism and the French Fifth Republic (2004), not to mention the many journal articles and book chapters dedicated to the FN from scholars such as Paul Hainsworth and Martin Schain. What more, then, can be said about the party and its leader that has provided a model for extreme right parties across Europe for over a quarter of a century? The answer is, perhaps naturally, not that much, discounting of course the most recent developments and in particular the shock electoral result of 2002. Indeed, keen scholars of the FN and the history of the extreme right in France, especially those also familiar with the large body of work written in French on the topic, are unlikely to gain much from Shields’ work. However, such academics are in all likelihood not his intended audience and the lack of any groundbreaking historical findings or particularly novel political insights should not detract from what is in fact a brilliant piece of scholarship representing the synthesis and culmination of 20 years of research on this topic by the author. The Extreme Right in France: From Pétain to Le Pen, has been written in a manner and style which makes it ideal for those to understand the Le Pen phenomenon without previous familiarity with the subject matter. In this way, the book represents an ideal text to be set for undergraduate students of French/European history and/or politics. The concept itself of tracing the lineage of Le Pen and his party to previous incarnations of the extreme right in France is not of course entirely original. Edward J. Arnold’s edited volume The Development of the Radical Right in France: from Boulanger to Le Pen and in particular Peter Davies’ other monograph The extreme right in France, 1789 to the present : from de Maistre to Le Pen also cover this terrain. Shields concentrates on tracing the extreme right since the Vichy regime to the present
day FN and in doing so, has actually succeeded in producing a vastly superior piece of work that is all the more richer for having chosen this more limited time period. The book is divided into two parts; the first examines the history of the extreme right in France from Vichy until the creation of the FN with specific chapters on Poujadism, the fight for and legacy of French Algeria, the 1960s and the formation of Ordre Nouveau and the Nouvelle Droite. The chapter on Poujadism is perhaps the most illuminating, not surprising given that Shields has published previously on this topic (he was fortunate enough to have conducted two separate interviews with the late Pierre Poujade). The second part of the book charts the history of the FN from its formation in 1972 until the elections of 2004. These chapters present not only a history of how the party developed in this period but also pay close scrutiny to electoral results in an attempt to explain its relative success. Particular emphasis is given to Le Pen’s presidential campaigns in 1988, 1995 and of course the shockwave of 2002. The opening two chapters are devoted to the Vichy regime in which Shields also engages with the long standing historical debate about whether it should be classed as a ‘fascist’ or merely a ‘police’ state. Shields concurs with fascism scholars such as Roger Griffin by asserting that it cannot be defined as fascist whilst admitting that it contained some of its features. This point of view, while obviously not shared by all, is argued cogently as is his assessment towards the end of the book that neither today’s FN should be labelled as such (a conclusion shared by Fieschi). This puts Shields at odds with Fysh and Wolfreys’ work (now in its second edition) which still situates the party within France’s fascist and neo-fascist tradition. The debate may continue to rage but Shields has without doubt produced an excellent all round reference text, which is extremely well researched. In terms of a history of the FN in English, it may now certainly lay claim to being one of the best if not the reference text on the subject.