[D66] The Rise of Far-Right Civilizationism

[A.OUT]

https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0896920519894051

The Rise of Far-Right Civilizationism
Blake Stewart
York University, Canada

Abstract

In recent years the rise of far-right politics in North America and 
Europe has called into question the stability and cohesion of the 
so-called liberal international order. Scholars and commentators have 
argued that this swelling configuration of reactionary social forces 
threatens the future of western  hegemony  within  a  21st  century 
global  capitalism.  This  essay  reflects  on  the  role  of 
transnational organizations, organic intellectuals and elite actors in 
shaping the modern far-right movement. This essay will discuss the rise 
of a transnational ideology of the contemporary far-right which I call 
‘far-right civilizationism’. This far-right ‘hegemonic project’ seeks to 
challenge the centrist global governance model of ‘neoliberal 
cosmopolitanism’, which has been dominant in the West since the end of 
the Cold War. The reactionary worldview of far-right civilizationism 
represents  an  alternative  elite  grand  strategy  for  world  order, 
purposed  to  refurbish  elite  hegemony during a period of profound 
structural crisis.

Keywords
international political economy, new right, elites, neoliberalism, 
globalization, transnationalism