The far right is generally considered to be a significant phenomenon of the first two decades of the 21st century, and it perhaps also represents the defining academic publishing phenomenon in political science and sociology over the same period. But what do we know about the transnationalization of the Far Right? While processes of transnationalization are well known and have long been studied in relation to left-wing, progressive actors, there is still a need for research to be carried out on how the far right responds to the challenges of transnationalization. This is true for both political parties and movements in an era such as the fourth wave of the far right, which has seen the emergence of increasingly hybrid actors on this side of the political spectrum.
Manuela Caiani, associate professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore and principal investigator in the AUTHLIB project, addressed these issues at a lecture at the Central European University on February 12, 2025, by using a number of concepts from the scholarship on social movement contention to look at the transnationalization of different types of actors on the Right (including both political parties and not party organizations). By putting forward a three-part metric to analyze the transnationalization of the far right, at the organizational-networks (also online), framing strategies and practices levels, her lecture brought the (inter-)relations between national and international politics on the far-right side of the political contentious. Professor Caiani discussed similarities and differences in the ‘degree’ and ‘forms’ of trasnationalization of political mobilization among various types of far right actors (including political parties and social movements, even anti-gender groups and no-vax actors) in a comparative approach focusing on some European countries.
Within AUTHLIB, Manuela Caiani leads a work package that explores and maps the co-operation among illiberal organizations, specifically the transnationalization and diffusion of illiberal political frames, networks, and strategies. The first results of the work package were presented by Batuhan Eren and Ivan Tranfic, research fellows at the Scuola Normale Superiore, in November last year. They presented data on the online networking of illiberals, emphasizing the actors and actor types from various countries in Europe that are most engaged in transnational interactions. The discussed the common frames used by these actors on their social media platforms, and relying on event chronologies and interview data, they showcased initial findings from a more focused, qualitative analysis of key transnational players such as the Polish Ordo Iuris or the Hungarian Center for Fundamental Rights, highlighting CPAC as the central hub of transnational cooperation.
The video about the panel discussion is available on AUTHLIB’s YouTube channel.
