Sandwiches will be available from 12.40.

What is the Far Right today, and what threat does it pose? Instead of Hitler’s Third Reich, today’s activists more often speak of ‘The Great Replacement’. And rather than marching down the streets, they frequently meet on online platforms or in conference rooms. Yet, most of the public still thinks of the Far Right as fascists, Nazis or Skinheads. To what extent has this portrayal become outdated, and what does it need to be replaced by? The lecture will try to answer this question based on the Far Right’s ideological evolution. It will outline key turning points, highlight recent developments, and conclude that, while there is an ideational essence that has remained unchanged, societal and technological changes have caused the far-right to become more diverse and less predictable.

Peter Neumann is Professor of Security Studies at the Department of War Studies, and founded the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), which he directed between 2008 and 2018. In 2017, he also served as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Special Representatives on Countering Violent Extremism.

Neumann has authored or co-authored seven books, most recently Bluster: Donald Trump’s War on Terror (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2020). Previous books include Radicalized: New Jihadists and the Threat to the West (IB Tauris, 2016), Old and New Terrorism (Polity Press, 2009), The Strategy of Terrorism (with MLR Smith) (Routledge, 2008), and Britain’s Long War: British Strategy in the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1969-98 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

Neumann holds an MA in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin, and a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London. Before becoming an academic, he worked as a radio journalist in Germany.