Social movements and policy outcomes: How right-wing grassroots groups influence foreign policy

Sponsored by the Manchester Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (JMCE), British International Studies Association (Foreign Policy Working Group, Russian and Eurasian Security Working Group), artsmethods@manchester.

This event aims to bring together scholars based in the UK, the EU and the US in order to produce ground-breaking research on the under-researched topic on the influence that right-wing social movements have on foreign policy. The progressive entrenchment of right-wing groups in their national political systems has raised a number of questions about their potential implications on the nature of democracy and policy-making. However, given the centrality of an extreme form of nationalism in the ideology and programmatic agendas of these groups, their impact on foreign policy- a domain which though closely connected to the ethno-centric and even expansionist ideology of far-right social movements, remains under-theorised. This workshop broadens the scope of the existing literature on the far right that focuses on their rise and causes of success, but largely ignores their outcomes and introduces a comparative analysis between Western, Central, and Eastern European countries in order to produce a solid theoretical base for the study of this phenomenon.

Organized by Sofia Tipaldou & Vera Tolz.