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Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have been increasing recently. Although the narrative developed to describe the execution of a Saudi Shiite cleric, Nimr Al-Nimr, as a sectarian dimension of the Kingdom’s policies towards Iran, Saudi Arabia’s goals are not principally fuelling the Shiite-Sunni divide. The Saudi executions were partially an attempt by Saudi Arabia to severe ties with Iran and push the tensions forward. Lifting sanctions against Iran, coupled with oil prices plummeting to around $32 per barrel remains a frightening nightmare for the Saudis...
Tertium datur, heißt hier „es gibt einen dritten Weg.“ Damit meinen die Politikwissenschaftlerin Ulrike Guérot und der östereichische Schriftsteller Robert Menasse in ihrem kürzlich in Le Monde diplomatique erschienenen Artikel den Weg Europas aus der Flüchtlingskrise. Der vorgeschlagene Ansatz könnte heftige Debatten auslösen, wenn weder Repression noch laissez-faire mehr funktionieren, Wohlstand und Sattheit endgültig der Panik weichen. Und warum sollten wir den Rechtspopulisten die Initiative bei der Entwicklung neuer gesellschaftlicher Konzepte überlassen?? In ihrem Artikel fordern Guérot und Menasse: Nicht Grenzen zu, nicht Grenzen auf, sondern Grenzen weg und her mit den Menschen! Flüchtlinge sollen im Sinne Immanuel Kants als Weltgäste willkommen geheißen werden, und sie sollen bei uns, in den Gastländern ihre eigenen Städte nachbauen. Soziologisch gesehen führten viele sich frei entwickelnde Parallelgesellschaften zu einem produktiveren Miteinander als Stigmatisierung, Integrationskurse und nach drei Jahren mögliche Abschiebung, so die Autoren...
A short while ago, an interested reader inquired about one of my articles on the topic of jihad and terrorism. I am thankful for the inspiring question. The reader asked me to clarify why there seems to be no difference between terrorism and jihad nowadays, and why this boundary has disappeared in debates by many people in the social media and in other places...
This is the third article in our series Trouble on the Far-Right.
I am the author of two books about the French nouvelle droite (ND – New Right): Where Have All The Fascists Gone? and Rethinking the French New Right: Alternatives to modernity. In 2014, I published a piece entitled „The French New Right Neither Right, nor Left?“. Surprisingly, the French ND leader Alain de Benoist responded with a polemical and largely ad hominem article in the same journal.1 I must stress that I neither identify with a political party, nor a political movement. I do not support any ideological current. De Benoist does. He is self-described as a man of the right. Hence, he cannot even claim intellectual objectivity.
In this piece, I want to offer some comments on my debate with de Benoist. I argue that while we should strive towards intellectual objectivity, we cannot be silent in the face of falsehoods. In this respect, the ND plays a dishonest game. Its leader and other ND intellectuals feign intellectual objectivity and the platitudes of transcending right and left, but they want cultural hegemony and the triumph of their decidedly radical right-wing ideals...
This is the sixth article in our series Trouble on the Far-Right.
As everywhere else in Eastern Europe, ever since the fall of the communist regime, Romania’s political system has experienced dramatic changes from one electoral cycle to another, starting off with what was considered to be an inflation of political parties at the beginning of the 1990’s and arriving today at what seems to approximate a two-party system, with the Social-Democratic Party (PSD) on the left and the National Liberal Party (PNL) on the right side of the political spectrum. However, the fog surrounding the ideological identities of virtually all Romanian political parties has only intensified in time, leaving the party system in flux and creating the idea that there are no significant differences between the major political players. As was the case of many other countries, this situation has generated the (at least partial) success of a radical anti-establishment discourse. However, unlike other European countries, the far right in Romania did not benefit by the financial crisis...
Here we go again. Recent terrorist attacks against another European capital city in less than a year continue to shake the core of world politics. It is worth to note that terrorist attacks are not only happening against European states, but also against other countries, most notably Turkey and Indonesia. Is it a clash of cultures, religions, or it is merely politics? How do we keep serving Daesh (Islamic State)?
This is the first article in our series Trouble on the Far-Right.
Europe is in trouble. Far right politics is spreading all over the place and its actors and discourses become increasingly influential at various levels: Parties from the far right achieved successes in French, Austrian and Slovakian elections. Far right movement organizations in Germany and Italy mobilized thousands of people to the streets. In Sweden and Great Britain, vigilante and terrorist groups wage armed struggle. And last but not least, ‚illiberal models of democracy‘ in Poland and Hungary demonstrate the far right’s capacity to transform politics on the European level...
An analysis of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, and the challenges in its evaluation
(2016)
The UK’s Counter-Terrorism strategy, known as CONTEST, is recognized as one of the most successful soft-focus strategies in the world, with an intended emphasis on community support and what have become known as ‘Prevent’ (or counter-extremism) measures. In all, there are four limbs to CONTEST: PREVENT, PROTECT, PURSUE and PREPARE. While there is much crossover between these areas, for example policing activities take place in all four limbs, each one has a specific focus with its own intrinsic goals. This article intends to provide an overview of CONTEST, and to explore the challenges of evaluating counter-terrorism strategies in general. In doing so, I intend to show that while robust and independent evaluation of CONTEST has not been undertaken from a quantitative approach, some level of evaluation has taken place and can be taken into consideration when moving forward with future analysis of the strategy...
Since Mobile Virtual Assistants are rising in popularity and come with most new smartphones out of the box and theoretical work in the field is hard to come by, a test is in order to establish the status quo of development. We did a manual test on six different Mobile Virtual Assistants in the categories Voice Recognition, Online Search, Phone Control and Natural Conversation and the results show that Siri is currently the best Mobile Virtual Assistant on the market with a success rate of 65.8% on average over all four categories.
This is the 27. and final article in our series Trouble on the Far-Right.
Trouble on the far right has become troubling for Europe. Not only do right-wing motivated attacks occur regularly against Roma camps, ethnic minorities, LGBTQI people and Jewish institutions. At the same time, a xenophobic discourse on refugees has gained momentum in politics and society and further blurred the lines between far right agitation and mainstream politics. In order to classify these events adequately, far right activism should not just be regarded as a security issue that can be eliminated by force, but as a threat that threatens the foundations of open, democratic and pluralist societies. Hence, we should be aware that far right politics are neither a new nor an isolated phenomenon but often bank on existing cultures of (gender, competitive, nativist) domination in capitalist societies.1
Certain developments have recently accelerated a radicalization of the political mainstream in terms of rhetoric, demands and policy outcomes and transformed the institutional landscape. The Slovakian parliamentary elections and the fateful presidential elections in Austria are central events during our 10-week blog series that prove the inherent dynamic. The right-wing government in Poland that has started removing fundamental rights and facilitated the spread of nationalist values is another example.
Contrary to the one-sided academic focus on elections, far right influence on European societies should be measured on three further levels: Massive street mobilizations epitomized by Pegida in Germany (and beyond) and the Italian Stop Invasione rallies, clandestine organizing such as the British far right militants and prospering relations between state authorities and far right movements, for example in Turkey, testify a growing diversification of far right activism. These scenarios demand methodologically and theoretically innovative perspectives. Our blog series Trouble on the Far Right has provided them with an international forum.
Fünf Jahre nach dem “Arabischen Frühling” ist von Aufbruchstimmung im Vorderen Orient und Nordafrika nicht mehr viel geblieben. Woran liegt das? Welchen Anteil haben die Europäer daran? Und was sollte die Europäische Union nun tun? Darüber sprachen wir mit Niklas Bremberg, Experte des Schwedischen Instituts für Internationale Beziehungen für die EU-Politik im Mittelmeerraum.
Am Montag, 30. Mai 2016 von 18.00-20.00h, laden das Institut für soziale Bewegungen (ISB) und die Gemeinsame Arbeitsstelle RUB/IGM zum 3. Bochumer Disput ein. Diskutiert wird zum Thema „Handelspolitik gerecht gestalten? Die Transatlantische Handels- und Investitionspartnerschaft (TTIP) als politischer Prozess“.
This is the eleventh article in our series Trouble on the Far-Right.
Far right and anti-Muslim politics in Britain have become increasingly fragmented. The British National Party (BNP), once the leading far right party, has largely collapsed. During the 2010 general election the BNP polled only 1.9% of the vote and was overshadowed by the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), a right-wing, anti-immigration populist party unencumbered by the BNP’s debilitating historical baggage. Thereafter, the BNP leadership descended into demoralization, bitter recrimination and factional rivalry, hastening the departure of its activist base, the collapse of its membership and leading, ultimately, to the expulsion of its chairman, Nick Griffin, as the party continued its further descent to political irrelevance. The BNP appears ‘finished’ as a political force, its ‘quest for legitimacy’ at an end.
This is the second article in our series Trouble on the Far-Right.
Since 2011 signs have been multiplying in Europe of a far right grassroots insurgency in the making. And there were signals, too, of a racist insurrection: arson attacks, petrol bombs, paramilitary and vigilante activities, and the stockpiling of weapons. The first major indication of the far right’s capacity for mass murder came from Norway on 22 July 2011. Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, mainly teenagers, whom he shot dead at the Labour Party youth summer camp on Oslo’s Utøya Island. At his trial, Breivik described the youngsters he so cruelly murdered as ‚traitors‘ who had embraced immigration in order to promote an ‘Islamic colonization of Norway‘..
On October the 2nd the Colombian people rejected the peace agreement between the government and the FARC in a referendum with a very thin majority of 0.4%. With this unexpected rejection, the referendum was in some ways similar to the Brexit referendum, for the results of which David Cameron was as little prepared as Juan Manuel Santos for his rejection; there was obviously no Plan B. In the last weeks, the government undertook ten changes to the agreement, but it will not go through a referendum again. Santos, as he said, has learned his lesson from the rejection and will seek to have the amended peace agreement approved in Congress. This will likely lead to the implementation of the peace agreement and the furtherance of its goals, such as a DDR process, land reforms, a transitional justice process and reparations for victims, just to mention a few. But this progress in peace will be seen as being at odds with popular opinion. Many of the “no” voters are still not satisfied with the adjustments made by the government and the FARC, and neither are the sectors of the opposition mainly responsible for the rejection. Nevertheless, the government and the FARC are progressing with the implementation, and peace talks with the second-largest – and now the last standing – guerrilla group, the ELN, are scheduled to start in 2017. The prospects for 2018 and onwards, when the presidency election will be held, are more questionable.
Wird von Terrorismusbekämpfung gesprochen, ist der Fokus auf nationale Problemlösungen gerichtet. Bei modernen Formen des Terrorismus handelt es sich zumeist um transnationale Phänomene, denen auch transnational begegnet werden muss. Zwei Beispiele zeigen die Probleme, die aus einer nationalen Beschränkung entstehen...
Zwischen Banalisierung und Dramatisierung: Zum medialen Diskurs über Salafismus in Frankreich
(2016)
Dies ist der 15. Artikel unseres Blogfokus „Salafismus in Deutschland“. Seit einigen Jahren ist Salafismus in Deutschland in aller Munde. Ganz anders im Nachbarland Frankreich, wo sich der Begriff selbst nach mehreren Attentaten mit „salafistischen Hintergrund“ nicht recht durchgesetzt hat. Um diesem Paradox auf den Grund zu gehen, habe ich den Diskurs über Salafismus in der französischen Presse dahingehend untersucht, wie das Thema über die letzten zehn Jahre immer wieder eingeführt und diskutiert wurde. Zu diesem Zweck habe ich eine systematische, kontextuelle Suche der Stichworte „Salafismus“, „Salafist“ und „salafistisch“ in den Archiven der fünf (zahlungspflichtigen) französischen Zeitungen mit nationaler Ausbreitung im Zeitraum von 2005 bis 2015 durchgeführt.1 Auf diese Weise kann ein etwaiger Wandel des Begriffs nachvollzogen werden...
Dies ist der 16. Artikel in unserer Blogreihe Trouble on the Far-Right.
„Wir sind zwar hinter Gittern, aber unsere Ideen sind an der Macht“, erklärte der Führer der Grauen Wölfe, Alparslan Türkeş nach dem Militärputsch vom 12. September 1980 in der Türkei. Damals hatten die Generäle als Zeichen ihrer angeblichen Neutralität neben Zehntausenden inhaftierten Linken auch einige hundert Anhänger der faschistischen Grauen Wölfe anklagen lassen. Entsprechend könnten sich heute seine Nachfolger rühmen: „Wir sind zwar nicht an der Regierung, aber unsere Ideen sind an der Macht.“ Denn die Herrschaft der seit 2002 alleine regierenden und gemeinhin als islamisch-konservativ charakterisierten Partei für Gerechtigkeit und Aufschwung (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP) von Staatspräsident Recep Tayyip Erdoğan und Ministerpräsident Ahmet Davutoğlu stützt sich zunehmend auf die Ideologie, die Methoden und selbst das Personal der Grauen Wölfe. Umgekehrt ist die offiziell in der Opposition stehende parlamentarische Vertretung der Grauen Wölfe, die Partei der Nationalistischen Bewegung (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi – MHP) eine Kriegsallianz mit der AKP-Regierung gegen die kurdische Befreiungsbewegung eingegangen...
This is the last post in the blog series „Movements and Institutions“. Check out the introductory post for more information on the series and click here for all contributions.
This blog series reflected on the interactions between social movements and institutions. These interactions have proven to be among the most complicated areas of social movement research, especially because causality is very hard to establish: (how) do movements influence formal political institutions – and vice versa? How to study, understand and explain the consequences of the institutionalization of social movements? The difficulties of addressing these questions are also related to definitional problems as social movements and institutions can be understood and defined in various ways. All authors contributing to this blog series highlight the importance of studying interactions between social movements from one perspective or another.
Dies ist der 18. Artikel unseres Blogfokus „Salafismus in Deutschland“. In aktuellen politischen Debatten genauso wie in wissenschaftlichen Veröffentlichungen wird häufig festgestellt, dass wir zu wenig über das Phänomen des Salafismus wissen. In der Tat: Auf empirischen Daten basierende Veröffentlichungen sind immer noch selten, während konzeptuelle und ideengeschichtliche Auseinandersetzungen mit dem salafistischen Feld in den vorhandenen Publikationen ebenso überwiegen wie die Zahlen aus Sicherheitsbehörden. Was sind die Ursachen dafür, welches Wissen benötigen wir und welche Forschungsansätze sind vielversprechend? Dieser Beitrag widmet sich diesen Fragen. Er stellt fest, dass der Salafismus fast ausschließlich als politisches Phänomen und Sicherheitsproblem und kaum in seinen religiösen und lebensweltlichen Dimensionen erforscht wird und nicht zuletzt eine methodische und konzeptuelle Standortbestimmung für die Forschung zu salafistischen Milieus geboten ist. mehr......