How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Far Right?

Young men. A cult-like group perverting a religious text to rationalize violence, sowing destruction seemingly for its own end. Once geographically focused, now a growing global threat.

Are we talking about far-right violence or jihadism? Yes.

While far-right violence and terrorism have been on the rise since 9/11, the number of attacks have increased at an alarming rate over the past few years. In fact, as shown by New America data, since the events of 9/11, more U.S. citizens have been killed by far-right extremists than by jihadists.

The growth of the far right hasn’t been confined to the United States—there has been a surge of this particular form of extremism across the entire world. A recent leak from prominent neo-Nazi website Iron March provided lists of members across the globe, including Greece, Serbia, and Ukraine. The website also had connections with several U.S. neo-Nazi organizations, such as Vanguard America and Atomwaffen Division.

Clearly, far-right extremism has become a transnational problem—but this isn’t the first time the United States has had to dismantle an international extremist threat. In fact, the similarities between far-right and jihadist propaganda are uncanny. So, how can we take the lessons learned from combating jihadist extremism and apply them to the far right?

To answer this question, New America’s International Security Program recently invited members of counter-extremism organization Parallel Networks to discuss its new Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate initiative—an e-magazine seeking to present an alternative, proactive approach to countering violent extremism. Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate opens a channel for current extremists to reach out to those who have managed to extricate themselves from the movement—thus creating a space separate from extremist echo chambers. It’s part of a broader strategy to de-radicalize individuals using the same techniques that were used to radicalize them in the first place—after all, not everyone joins these movements for the same reason, and, per the organization’s philosophy, the work of countering violent extremism needs to be done at a more direct, localized level.

“You don’t just snap your fingers and say ‘I’m out of the movement,’” said Jeff Schoep, former leader of the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States, during the event. “It’s a long process, it takes time, and formers are absolutely critical to the process.”

The far right, Schoep noted, is “harder to understand” than jihadi extremists. While jihadist groups tend to be ideologically aligned, he said, far-right groups can be far more fractured and decentralized.

While the federal government does have laws in place to tackle domestic terrorism, Mitch Silber, co-founder of Parallel Networks and former director of intelligence analysis for the New York Police Department, observed that it “hasn’t been a policy priority for the U.S. to look internally at the white supremacist threat.” That might change, however—thanks to the transnational ties of some domestic neo-Nazi organizations, the U.S. State Department could soon classify them as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). The designation would give the FBI a greater arsenal of tools to work with when cracking down on these organizations.

In addition, some have proposed the creation of another 9/11-style of commission—this time focused on the far right. The commission would spur bipartisan investigation into the origins of the attacks and what policies were at fault, providing policy recommendations for the future. However, this idea was quickly dismissed during the event by Silber, who explained that we already understand the nature of the problem—so “we’ll lose 18 months just from that whole process.”

The next year, said Jesse Morton, Parallel Networks co-founder and former jihadist recruiter, will be about “crisis management.” The major election year will present a host of potential conflicts and rising tensions—and extremists across the spectrum will use this as an opportunity to recruit and further their agendas. In the face of this threat, Morton stressed, there is a “need for government involvement in the intervention space”—and that intervention could be another “tool in the tool-kit” to stop radicalization.

The bottom-up approach to preventing violent extremism presented by Parallel Networks, in tangent with more expansive policy and legislation, could help turn the tide against radicalization. Only time will tell if Ctrl+Alt+Del-Hate actually puts a significant dent on extremist agendas—and lives up to its ambitious name.