Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Does political affiliation affect criminalization and the criminal process, and if so, how? This paper aims to answer this question by examining and comparing two types of ideological opposition to military service in Israel: the 2002-2003 left-wing objection to serve in the army due to the occupation of Palestinian territories, and the 2005 right-wing objection to serve due to the disengagement from the Gaza strip, which involved evacuating Jewish settlers. Both groups challenged the ethos of compulsory and egalitarian military service in Israel, but differed in their demographic characteristics and motivations. The paper uses a multi-method ethnographic analysis to compare the criminalization policies, and case disposition practices, applied by the Israeli military justice system to these two groups. I begin by offering a genealogical account of how investigatory and prosecutorial policies were created and shaped, and then move on to provide a comparative quantitative analysis of case disposition, based on Personnel Unit and Military Advocate General records. The findings are supplemented by in-depth interviews with military legal personnel and initial findings from a media survey. The findings address three possible criminal processing models: a formal-legal model, emphasizing legally-relevant variables; a substantive-political model, highlighting the political and demographic differences between the groups; and an organizational model, highlighting concerns about caseload. Initial findings from this work in progress lend support to a complex combination of these models as an explanation for the army’s policies in criminalizing and processing disobedient soldiers.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper focuses upon the relation between expanding modes of European integration and the rise of right wing politics. This paper views Europeanization as a special case of globalization and it examines the political consequences of the diffusion of neo-liberalism in Europe.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: It is generally assumed that different types of violent extremists and terrorists operate within discrete ideological and cultural milieus that are relatively insular, if not entirely distinct from one another. This simplistic assumption ignores a far more complex and fluid reality, however, since elements from different extremist milieus have not infrequently interacted and lent one another assistance in the past, and there are indications that new patterns of ideological cross-fertilization and collaboration are presently emerging among terrorist groups. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether, in spite of their marked ideological differences, a shared hatred of the ?New World Order? purportedly dominated by the United States might cause transnational Islamist terrorist networks such as al-Qā`ida to collude on an operational level with certain radical right- and left-wing groups in the West. Among the issues to be addressed will be the indicators of extremist collaboration, the doctrinal and pragmatic factors that may underlie Islamist collaboration with other terrorist groups, illustrative examples of prior collaboration between elements from different extremist milieus, the current links that have been established between Islamists and both far right and far left radicals, the potential for increased collaboration between these milieus in the future, and the strategic and tactical implications of such collaboration for mass casualty and WMD terrorism.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper explores similarities in behavioral characteristics and etiology of European fascism and radical Islamism. Origins of European fascism in the form of proto-fascist models are found not in Italy and Germany, but in Russia at the time of the Russo-Japanese War. Paramilitarism as a source of terror, willingness to kill wantonly and in large numbers, theatricality and appeal to the emotions, an emphasis on unity in opposition to liberalism, and confrontations with modernity all characterize cases of European fascism and Al Qaeda. A common etiology for both includes their origins in war, the experience of loss and the salience of loss born out of extraordinary contrasts within their historical trajectories. A modified Davies J-curve based on recent findings on the consequences of emotional states of being is found to explain the instances of political extremism. Apparent exceptions are explained within the confines of the theoretical framework.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: While scholars have widely debated the traits that characterize radical right-wing parties in Western Europe (Ignazi 1992; Betz 1994; Kitschelt 1995; Mudde 1996), some consensus has emerged over the last decade. The characteristics that have been most widely attributed to all parties categorized as part of the contemporary radical right-wing party family include xenophobia and anti-immigrant positions. However, in recent elections some far right parties seem to be altering their usual course. For instance, in the 2007 election campaigns, several notoriously nationalist parties of the far right such as the National Front in France and the Vlaams Blok in Belgium attempted overt appeals to ethnic groups that compose their usual array of enemies, including Jews. The National Front extended an invitation to working class immigrants to join their ranks. Such observations suggest that a sea change may be occurring among radical right-wing parties, as their concept of the “nation” broadens to include new members. This paper evaluates the proposition that the traditional out-groups for radical right parties have now become in-groups. It examines the scope of this phenomenon in terms of its ubiquity across West European far right parties. Where the change is observed, this paper will consider its causes and suggest implications. Changes in party platforms, public speeches, party rhetoric, strategy and tactics, as well as electoral results will be compared across countries.