Description
The widespread resurgence of right-wing populism and white nationalist sentiments in liberal democracies has been a growing concern for the discipline of IR. Current nationalism research has sought to understand what makes them so attractive by focussing on affect and emotion. Yet, these literatures often sidestep critical engagement with existent feminist, queer and race-critical. Feminist, queer and race-critical interventions have highlighted how the legacies of colonialism and centuries of heteropatriarchal oppression reverberate in the societies of our present, most notably in the lingering attachments to white supremacy that are evidenced in current right-wing populism, but also in our current ways of studying it. Making these connections, this paper argues for revisiting the ways in which we study white nationalism and affect. This means interrogating the coloniality of current epistemologies in the study of white nationalism, and rethinking their attendant methodologies. Ultimately, it argues for the need to take our analysis beyond right-wing actors, white feelings and the present moment to explain the persistence of white nationalism in western nation-states. Consequently, critical research needs to centre the lived experiences and insights of those most affected and yet most marginalised by growing right wing presences: racialised and queer communities.
