Browsing by Author "Rodriguez Guervos, Leyde"

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    A Tale of Two Responses: Assessing North American Responses to Far Right Extremism in a Post-9/11 World
    (2024-08-12) Rodriguez Guervos, Leyde; Huebert, Rob; Hiebert, Maureen; Terriff, Terry; Huebert, Rob
    Over the last decade, there has been a significant increase in far right extremism across Western countries. This trend calls into question if and how governments are addressing this growing threat. Particular attention should be given to the responses of the American and Canadian governments, as North America currently hosts one of the largest far right extremist environments known to researchers globally. This thesis aims to contribute to this body of literature by examining how the United States and Canada have, respectively, responded to the increase in far right extremism. Two longitudinal studies are conducted examining each government’s responses to far right extremism from 2001 to 2022, starting at 9/11 and ending with the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, respectively. Through this methodology, this thesis contends that both the United States and Canada have failed to adequately anticipate and respond to far right extremism due to the limitations imposed by their post-9/11 counterterrorism frameworks. Specifically, in the American case, both the 9/11 attacks and the events of January 6 were the results of failures of cooperation and imagination within the American counterterrorism apparatus. Domestic agencies have struggled to shift focus from Muslim extremist terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 to the current most prominent terrorist threat: far right extremism. In contrast, in the Canadian case, post-9/11 counterterrorism strategies have not concentrated on independently addressing terrorism but have been predominantly reactive to American policies and events, resulting in significant American influence. While the Canadian system has managed to pivot toward addressing the threat of far right extremism by drawing from American events, its own institutional constraints have hindered its ability to effectively manage this threat, as exemplified by events such as the Freedom Convoy. The findings of this thesis provide insight into the patterns of counterterrorism responses over time and space specific to far right extremism.