U of A-Norwegian Collaboration to Study Violent Right-Wing Extremism Across U.S., Western Europe

University Relations

Jeff Gruenewald, director of the University of Arkansas' Terrorism Research Center.

The U of A Terrorism Research Center is partnering with researchers at the Norwegian Police University College to study violent right-wing extremism in the United States and Western Europe. The research team was awarded $1,639,551 by the Research Council of Norway and the Center for Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo to study the effects of counterterrorism measures on the shifting nature of right-wing extremism across Western democracies.

The four-year project builds on the Terrorism Research Center's ongoing work to study various forms of terrorism and violent extremism, and expands the U.S. Extremist Crime Database, which is considered a leading database on acts of right-wing violence committed over the last 30 years. The new project involves adding 10 years of new data on violent right-wing plots in the U.S. that were ultimately foiled by law enforcement.

"This new project will allow us to address how repressive measures against right-wing extremists can fuel or dampen future extremist violence, and how such outcomes might vary across social and political contexts," said Jeff Gruenewald, associate professor and director of the Terrorism Research Center.

The new project is indicative of recent efforts by the Terrorism Research Center to facilitate more cross-national research on terrorism and violent extremism.

"The TRC's partnership with the Norwegian Police University College emphasizes the crucial comparative component of the cutting-edge research of the center," said Shauna Morimoto, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology. "With insights from this grant, Dr. Gruenewald and his colleagues will enhance their efforts at understanding terrorism and extremist violence in international contexts."

Terrorism Research Center researchers are currently working with the German Institute on Radicalization and De-radicalization Studies to compare risk factors for suicide terrorism attacks occurring in both the U.S. and Germany. Gruenewald is also co-editing a volume titled Right-Wing Extremism in Canada and the United States, to be published later this year by Palgrave Macmillan.

The Terrorism Research Center is a non-partisan research organization housed in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the U of A. The center's mission is to use the tools of social science and data analytics to promote safer communities, inform evidence-based policies and train the next generation of researchers and law enforcement professionals. For more information about how to support the Terrorism Research Center, please visit terrorismresearch.uark.edu.