Warrior Nightmares: Reactionary Populism at the Millennium

Abstract

The dawning of a new millennium, beset with global crisis and local upheavals, seems in many ways to harken back to the inter-war years when classical fascism first appeared as a powerful force across Europe. A resurgence of right-wing populist groups and ideologies in many countries over the past decade has rekindled political and scholarly interest in the fascist tradition. Could the spread of right-wing tendencies, with their appeals to people who are marginalized or feel threatened by change, signal the replay of yet another cycle of ultra-authoritarian politics? The recent proliferation of explosive civil wars around the world, many of them rooted in bloody ethnic, regional, and religious strife, brings to this question an added salience.