Post-Cold War Period and Contemporary Right-Wing Extremism (1990–)

The evolution of the right-wing extremist milieu was, in broad terms, similar in all Nordic countries after the Cold War. In all countries, a growing skinhead movement, with security concerns and the violence brought by it, was one of the key issues in the 1990s. The milieu also internationalized in tandem, building transnational connections based on RWE youth culture, also marking a shift from anticommunism to anti-immigration issues. Organizations, especially the skinhead group Blood and Honour, which was originally from the UK, also built pan-Nordic or Scandinavian networks. Internationalization of the milieu was shown in their culture, not least via white power music that was actively delivered from Sweden and other Nordic countries into the international markets. Despite connections abroad, in practice, however, many groups had national or even just local focal points because nationwide activism was time and resource consuming. This changed when the internet emerged, providing them with easy and cheap resources for linking similar minded activists across the globe. Certain key events, especially the 9/11 attacks in the US, also changed the RWE landscape simultaneously in all Nordic countries in the twenty-first century. Besides loose networks, more traditional organizations such as NMR continued to strive for growth and visibility. The Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), a pan-Nordic national socialist movement, has had its national chapters in every Nordic country. The evolution at the national level will be summarized in more detail below. The changing constellations at the RWE scene have also affected research, as well as preventive- and countermeasures by the authorities, as will be analyzed later in this chapter and in a separate section of this report.

The anti-immigration youth group, locally called the green jackets (Grønjakkerne), emerged in the late 1970s. Later, the elements of an international youth culture and subculture evolved also as a part of the RWE scene. From this subculture came several, typically short-lived neo-Nazi groups, which also occasionally brought some members to the minuscule RWE parties. Of the latter, the newly formed DNSB (1991), which often allied with like-minded groups in Sweden, Norway, and Germany, held demonstrations and marches, which attracted a relatively large amount of media attention. International neo-Nazi organizations, such as Blood and Honour and Combat 18, landed in Denmark during the 1990s. More action-oriented members of the DNSB sometimes shifted to these more violence-prone groups.

By the early 2000s, neo-Nazi groups started to lose ground to other actors. These included, especially after 2001, different anti-Muslim groups, which were also called “counterjihadists.” New groups were modeled after the international format and joined European networks. These included the short-lived Danish Defence League (DDL) and longer-lasting group Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark (Stop the Islamisation of Denmark) (SIAD), which also had their counterparts, among others, in Norway and Finland, though in the latter case mostly as an online phenomenon. The focus of these extremist groups was on culture and religion instead of race. SIAD has claimed to have around 1,000 members, though the figures are probably exaggerated (Holmsted, 2018).

Along with DNSB, which gradually became less street oriented, Danmarks Nationale Front (DNF), founded in 2007, represented the new wave of national socialist groups in Denmark, bringing together openly neo-Nazi activist with other extreme right actors. DNF has sometimes resorted to violent activism, among others, in cooperation with German groups. More recently, the short-lived transnational phenomena worth mentioning here is also the vigilante organization Soldiers of Odin, founded in 2015, which did not prove very successful in Denmark, and the national chapter already closed down in 2016. Of the most central pan-Nordic movements, national socialists NMR also established a Danish chapter in 2013. However, this appeared also as a short-term endeavor, ceasing its activities in 2016.

The Danish neo-Nazi groups have, in general, not appeared recently as violent as in other Nordic countries, though in the 1990s, they were suspected and convicted for several violent acts. They have also been involved in international plots. In 1997, several Danish C18 members were arrested and later convicted for sending letter bombs to the UK, to whom they considered their political opponents, and during the arrest, they also shot and wounded one police officer. The group also sent a letter bomb to the Swedish Minister of Justice.

The Danish milieu, in cooperation with Swedish and Norwegian activists, has also produced a considerable amount of propaganda, including music and propaganda videos. A Finnish activist, living then in Southern Sweden, was, for example, in the late 1990s, their video producer, and his material was spread also in Germany via Danish networks. Because of legal reasons, the international skinhead movement Blood and Honour, which formed in the late 1990s also a joint Scandinavian chapter, had a contact address in Denmark for propaganda consumers in the UK and Germany.

The image of RWE in the post-Cold War period Finland that emerged from research is a variegated one and might be characterized as comprising two distinct periods of mobilization. Although the 1990s saw a handful of organized groups, such as the Patriotic National Alliance (PNA), their impact remained limited, with parliamentary politics furthermore witnessing little success by right-wing radicals. It was rather the skinhead movement, a subcultural phenomenon, that came to define Finnish RWE in the 1990s. Some groups that would later prove to be significant, such as Suomen Sisu, began to form at the turn of the millennium, but the first decade of the 2000s was, to a large extent, a time of lesser activity for right-wing extremists in Finland.

The situation began to change toward the 2010s, however. The NRM’s Finnish chapter was established in 2008 and the Finnish Defence League (FDL) in 2011. Meanwhile, the Finns party scored the first of their major electoral victories in 2011. The 2010s, indeed, proved to be a decade of strong mobilization for right-wing extremists in Finland. The large-scale influx of asylum seekers into the country during late 2015 particularly provided impetus to the formation of new groups and the proliferation of public activism. Protest groups such as Rajat Kiinni! (Close the Borders!) and its follow-up, Suomi Ensin (Finland First), organized a series of demonstrations throughout Finland during 2015–2017. The Soldiers of Odin similarly emerged as a defining phenomenon of this wave of mobilization and evolved into one of Finnish RWE’s most transnational manifestations, with chapters of the organization founded in several countries outside Finland. The right-wing extremist music subculture furthermore saw increased activity in the 2010s, with Rock Against Communism and National Socialist Black Metal groups producing new material and performing live.

Whereas the right-wing extremist violence of the 1990s was primarily perpetrated by skinheads and evolved into a rather sustained phenomenon in the city of Joensuu, right-wing extremist violence in the twenty-first century has been more sporadic, albeit occasionally quite serious in nature. Members of the NRM have committed ideologically motivated acts of violence both during and outside the group’s activities, with the most serious incident taking place in September 2016 when a passer-by protesting against the group’s demonstration in Helsinki suffered serious injury to the head after being assaulted by a senior NRM activist. The victim died a week later after exiting the hospital against the recommendations of medical staff. Demonstrations by other groups have similarly witnessed scuffles, though such altercations have occasionally been initiated by counterdemonstrators. Finland also saw a series of arson attacks against asylum seeker centers during the autumn of 2015, yet these incidents did not result in casualties and usually inflicted limited material damage.

Verbal violence, rather than physical, has been more characteristic of Finnish RWE in the twenty-first century. Apart from the proliferation of hate speech on social media platforms, several Finnish-language fake media websites were established in the 2010s. Some of these sites have been instrumental to initiating and maintaining campaigns of targeted hatred against ethnic minorities, journalists, politicians, researchers, and human rights activists.

The internet and social media have also contributed toward rendering Finnish RWE a more transnational phenomenon than before. Ideological influences such as counterjihadism, alongside various concepts, terms and items of digital culture have found their way into the Finnish right-wing extremist scene via the online environment. The internet and social media platforms have also enabled Finnish groups—the Soldiers of Odin in particular—to expand beyond Finland’s borders and maintain contact with their foreign chapters. This growth of transnational interconnectedness in the online environment has not, however, fully translated into offline cooperation between Finnish and foreign groups. Such activity has remained sporadic, with the exception of the NRM’s Finnish and Scandinavian chapters.

In the late 1980s, the revolutionary anticommunist agenda of the extreme right was gradually replaced by anti-immigration mobilization and the emergence of relatively large racist and extreme right youth subcultures. An important backdrop to this development was significant growth in labor immigration from Pakistan and Morocco in the 1970s and 1980s, along with a new wave of refugees and asylum seekers in the 1980s. Initially, the skinhead subculture consisted of loosely organized youth gangs across the country, but eventually, it adopted a more distinct skinhead profile and became more organized.

In Norway, this subculture was represented by groups like Boot Boys and Viking, as well as white power music bands and concerts, along with neo-Nazi organizations that appealed to some marginalized and vulnerable youths (e.g., Vigrid). Most participants were recruited into these scenes as teenagers, the groups themselves fulfilling some basic social needs such as friendship, identity, protection, excitement, and group belonging. Their visual style was easily recognizable in the street, which frequently led to violent clashes with opponents, such as left-wing and antifascist militants. Compared with the previous period, the violence was less part of a revolutionary strategy and more driven by local group dynamics, youth revolt, and militant rivalry in the streets, though some of the groups developed more terrorist tactics toward the end of the period.

The skinhead mobilization ended somewhat abruptly with the killing of a 15-year-old boy, Benjamin Hermansen, in the eastern parts of Oslo on January 26, 2001. Both perpetrators were affiliated with the Boot Boys. The killing resulted in massive countermobilization in Norwegian society, and through police efforts and antiracist mobilization, most extreme right groups disappeared. Vigrid was one of few groups that continued to exist, though with limited capacity.

A new phase started with the terrorist attacks on September 11 in New York. These attacks contributed to the rise of the so-called counterjihad movement across many countries in the West, including in Norway with groups like Stop Islamisation of Norway (SIAN), Norwegian Defence League, and, more recently, also PEGIDA (Berntzen, 2019). Except for SIAN, these groups have proven to be short-lived, but some of the anti-Muslim sentiments have been channeled by far-right parties like Demokratene and alternative media like Human Right Service and Document.no.

These new anti-Islam-oriented extreme right movements were different from previous organizations. For this movement, internet and social media became an important platform for extreme right activism (Bjørgo & Gjelsvik, 2018; Haanshuus & Jupskås, 2017). The new groups typically consisted of adults and elderly, and there were hardly any youths to be seen in these organizations. In fact, there were no attractive social arenas that could pull youths into extreme right or racist movements, and neither was there a white power music scene, as there was during the 1990s. The main neo-Nazi organization, which has emerged during the past decade, the NMR, has some 30–40 activists in Norway, far less than in Sweden and Finland and Denmark. However, the members of this organization are adults, typically between the ages of 20 and 50, and at least in Norway, there are hardly any teenagers. Apparently, the group’s very strict rules and way of life does not seem to appeal to many young people. Seemingly, to the younger generations, the national socialist ideology appears outdated.

As in many other countries, including Sweden and the UK, there have also been less extreme right violence compared with the 1990s, but the counterjihad movement has inspired perpetrators to carry severe violent attacks against Muslims and/or those perceived to be supporting Muslim communities and immigrants. All three attacks with a fatal outcome were carried out by so-called lone actors, who, despite executing the attacks on their own initiative, had been active on various online platforms with extreme right content (e.g., Stormfront, Gates of Vienna, EndChan). The deadliest attack took place on July 22, 2011, when a 32-year-old man detonated a bomb in the government district of Oslo before carrying out a shooting spree at the summer camp of the Labor youth wing. In total, 77 people were killed, most of them teenagers, and several hundreds were wounded. In his manifesto, the perpetrator showed that he was clearly inspired by the counterjihad movement, and the justification for attacking the left was that these so-called “cultural Marxists” were responsible for the “Muslim invasion of Norway” (Hemmingby & Bjørgo, 2016).

In recent years, new groups have emerged, and there has been a growing mobilization in the streets. SIAN is still one of the dominant actors, but some of the demonstrations and other forms of unconventional activism have been carried out by actors like the neo-Nazi group NMR, the vigilante group Soldiers of Odin, and the extreme right party Alliansen. Generation Identity, however, an ethno-nationalist movement that has succeeded in recruiting students and other resourceful youths in some European countries, has not yet been able to gain any significant foothold in Norway.

Swedish neo-Nazi milieu, or militant race-ideological underground culture, in the late 1980s consisted of smaller organizations and countless local groups. Although parties such as Nordiska Rikspartiet (NRP) still existed, the activities of the new generations took freer format and likened more a lifestyle than an organized political party. The journal Vit Rebell (White Rebel), focusing on music culture, became the media platform for new activists. The movement was also growingly international by nature, not least because of the influence of the white power music. In the early 1990s, a group around revolutionary RWE journal Storm, started to congregate the milieu into a more unified front, trying to overcome the ideological differences. They also collaborated with older groups, such as NRP, and started to expand. Building on the ideas of racial war, these ideas were also put in practice during the 1990s, when several serious crimes were conducted by the milieu members.

The network members around Storm and Vit Rebell came to public awareness in 1991 after series of armed bank robberies, other robberies, and arms caches were connected to the group. Media started to use name Vit Ariskt Motstånd, or abbreviation VAM, of the network, which had no official name at that time. VAM soon became notorious, and several bomb threats and attentats were connected to it. Oftentimes, some minor violent groups were built, which later would try to affiliate with VAM. In 1992 and 1993, several of the leading activists of the network were convicted for armed robberies. VAM, however, continued underground, with a growing number of local groups formed by new activists previously unknown to the scene followers, as well as a propaganda channel, and as a myth for others to follow. The network had links, among others, also to other Nordic countries.

Of the more organized and relevant groups, Nationalsocialistisk Front (NSF), a party founded in 1994, stands out, because it arranged public demonstrations and activities, and unlike many others, its members did not hide behind the false names of masks. By the late 1990s, NSF was the most rapidly growing militant and revolutionary extreme right group.

If the organizations had become less relevant in the 1990s and a more network-oriented approach was favored, this process was accelerated by the growing importance of a new means of communication. Forums, websites, and web blogs were founded by almost every relevant group or groupuscule. After the 9/11 attacks in the US, this was especially important for the growing counterjihad movement, which was internationally well networked. For the early 2000s, different counterjihadists groups and rising nationalist parties turned the focus away from the militant national socialist scene. On the other hand, they managed to organize large, international gatherings, such as the Salem marches in 2000s, with participants from all Nordic countries.

From a pan-Nordic perspective, however, a more traditional, hierarchical, and militant group soon became an even more salient issue. Klas Lund, former convicted VAM activist, founded in 1997 the Swedish Resistance Movement (SRM), which first consisted, besides movement itself, also of the youth organization and journal Folktribunen. One of the goals of the movement was to build a united Nordic national socialist state. Compared with NSF, the SRM acted more anonymously and was stricter in its ideology and more elite like in the spirit of the German SS movement. On the other hand, new forms of communication gave them more potential to reach wider audiences than previous movements.

In the early years, before stabilizing its position, the SRM was faced with several splits and heavy competition from groups like NSF, as well as from so-called identitarian groups that would take a less orthodox position, regarding the promotion of cultural, nativist nationalism, and abandoning national socialism and its race ideology. The SRM also built international networks outside Nordic countries, especially with German groups. In the early years, it even rented premises for its head quarter from German Holocaust denier and Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) politician Jürgen Rieger.

National socialist groups did not utilize only propaganda and public shows of force but continuously also offered more radical party alternatives to other nationalist political parties such as Sweden Democrats. Among these was Svenskarnas Parti (Party of Swedes), which was founded when NSF was disbanded in 2008 after an ideological reorientation and abandonment of open national socialism. The new party also managed to gain a seat in the municipal elections in 2010. After a few years, in 2015, Svenskarnas Parti ended its activism, leaving the field for the SRM, which had also had some modest electoral success, as they gained a mandate in the municipal election in 2014.

When a Norwegian chapter was founded in 2003, the SRM changed its name officially to the NRM, and despite Norway not even continuously having a chapter, the name stayed the same. In 2007, a new chapter was founded in Finland, and Denmark followed in 2013. Since 2015, the NRM has been, to some extent, pan-Nordic, although Swedes still occupy leading positions. All national chapters have since then been considered as parts of the same organization, no longer using their national names. In its pan-Nordic approach, the NRM reminds of Nordiska Rikspartiet, which the NRM also considers as one of its important predecessors.

The NRM also took part in the national elections in 2018. Before the election, they had already changed leadership, with Klas Lund stepping down and being replaced by Simon Lindberg. The elections did not become a huge success, which caused friction within the movement concerning the chosen strategy of reaching wider audiences and trying a parliamentary approach. In 2019, Klas Lund and some of his closest allies decided to leave the movement and founded a new organization, Nordisk Styrka (Nordic Strength). The new group has been very clandestine, however, and the NRM, although weakened, continues to hold a leading position and remains the public face of the Nordic neo-Nazism in the media. The NRM was banned in Finland in 2020 by the decision of the supreme court, which also affected the movement and its prospects as a whole.

Studies of the post-Cold War period have generally followed similar trends in all Nordic countries. In the 1980s, especially the skinhead youth culture was the main focus of the studies. The increasing violence and visibility of these groups during the 1990s brought them onto the public agenda, and a growing number of government-commissioned studies and reports were published. Typically, these were, and somewhat still are, snapshot studies describing the scene at a given moment, without historical depth, often launched after some spectacular event with broad media attention. Government repressions were also often the result of some violent event (Kotonen, 2021), and the research has followed in its wake, when government programs and action plans emphasize the need for knowledge about the movements, groups and violent individuals. Considering the later phases of the RWE in Nordic countries, the focus toward counterjihadism and general anti-Islamism, especially after the 9/11 attacks in the US, have also shaped the research agenda. Even more important event in this respect was the July 22 attacks in Norway in 2011, which led in Norway, as well as to minor extent elsewhere, to more concerted efforts to build more permanent research infrastructures, which appears also in increased research efforts.

However, there is still a lack of continuity or more established schools of research, reflecting to some extent the situation in international research. Approaches are still somewhat individualized, methodologically underdeveloped, and the approach often problem oriented. Partly for these reasons, there is no sufficient accumulation of historical knowledge of the extreme right milieu, and especially, the transnational aspects are understudied. These aspects have been present perhaps most often in those studies focusing on the cultural aspects of the RWE. At the wake of British research tradition of cultural studies, culture has been seen as a key to pan-Nordic and transnational exchange of ideas while providing an inside-out view of the milieu. Ideas and culture are, arguably, what knits the milieu together across the national borders, not so much the practices or formal organizations. In general, nevertheless, many of the studies and reports analyzed for this review often also lacked ethnographic depth, using in general newspapers, webpages, and other relatively easily available sources for data collection.

The research into Danish fascism after 1990 has been sparse and with a limited focus on transnational or comparative approaches regarding the Nordic countries. The most important investigation of Danish fascism in the 1990s was a historical and sociological overview of various groups on the far right. The publication sporadically described transnational contacts between Germany and the Nordic countries (Karpantschof, 1999), along with a description of the networks opposing neo-Nazi movements. Besides scholarly works, some antifascist groups produced overviews of the RWE in Denmark, occasionally with insights into their transnational networks as well (see e.g., Demos, 2005). Although published and compiled by anonymous authors and often with no references, with a lack of scholarly publications, such works may have largely influenced the general awareness of the existence of extreme right groups. Their data were later used also for the purposes of an academic study (Karpantschof, 1999).

In the aftermath of Anders Breivik’s terrorist attack in 2011, several reports commissioned by the authorities and aimed at preventing radicalization were published in Denmark. These reports, which often were problem oriented, included few overviews of the Danish far right (CERTA, 2015; Christensen & Mørck, 2017; Hemmingsen & Gemmerli, 2014; Hemmingsen & Holmsted, 2017; Holmsted, 2012, 2018). Although typically relatively descriptive studies, some studies dove deeper into the roots of radicalization. For example, a report focusing on radicalization processes and community resilience also explored the local aspects in forming of the RWE milieus and, besides a literature analysis, was also based on a small scale interview data (CERTA, 2015).

Generally speaking, however, these reports provided finite insights because the empirical basis of the reports were limited. None of them used an entangled or transnational method. The post-Cold War period can be understudied and characterized by a general lack of in-depth studies. Recent studies by Christoffer Kølvraa (2019a, 2019b) have approached the RWE in Denmark and other Nordic countries from the perspective of pan-Nordic cultural imagination, also studying Viking imagery as signifier of a pure Nordic racial community (Kølvraa, 2019b; cf. also Vuorinen, 2019). Outside Denmark, other Nordic scholars have also carried out some comparative studies, including analyses of Danish milieu (see, e.g., Ravndal, 2018).

The corpus of research on post-Cold War period RWE in Finland included nine items with transnational aspect that cover the years after 1989 and one that spans both the Cold War period and the 1990s. Of these items five were chapters in edited volumes, two were reports, one was an academic book, and one was a book aimed for the general public.

The scope of research on post-Cold War period RWE in Finland extended from those works that cover specifics actors and themes to more extensive overviews of the scene and its evolution post-1989. Among the items of the former kind are Hynynen’s (1999) study of the PNA and Kotonen’s (2019) book chapter on the Soldiers of Odin. Works with a wider scope have included Sallamaa’s (2018) report on the extraparliamentary right-wing and anti-immigration scene in Finland during the 2010s, as well as Koivulaakso’s, Brunila’s and Andersson’s (2012) book on RWE in twenty-first-century Finland. Jokinen’s (2011) book chapter similarly discussed a number of right-wing extremist groups and movements in post-Cold War period Finland, but also material on other milieus such as eco-radicals.

A mere two researchers have authored more than one item. Tommi Kotonen published a book chapter on the Soldiers of Odin while also authoring a monograph covering Finnish RWE during both the Cold War period and the 1990s (Kotonen, 2018, 2019). Pertti Hynynen has meanwhile coauthored a book chapter on Finnish right-wing radicalism in the 1990s with Kyösti Pekonen and Mari Kalliala (Pekonen et al., 1999) while also authoring a book chapter on the PNA in the same volume (Hynynen, 1999).

It should be noted, of course, that the corpus of research would be more voluminous if items without a pan-Nordic dimension were also included. Studies on Finnish skinheads in particular have been numerous, yet many have approached the topic from an exceedingly local perspective and focused on the situation in Joensuu during the 1990s. Although the transnational nature of the skinhead subculture has, more precisely, been acknowledged by these studies, the cross-border dimension and its relevance to Finland did not constitute a focus of research in itself (Hilden-Paajanen, 2005; Perho, 2010; Puuronen, 2001).

Recent studies focusing partly or fully on the NMR in Finland have also brought pan-Nordic dimension into the research, though the approaches still stemmed mostly from national perspectives and concerns. Recent works included the report by Sallamaa (2018), analysis of the NRM proscribing process by Kotonen (2022), and a study on ethnocultural and racial ambiguities of national socialist state-building by Sallamaa and Malkki (2022).

Compared with the previous period, there has been more comprehensive and original research on the rise of the skinhead subculture. Most of the research was carried out by the anthropologist Tore Bjørgo and sociologist Katrine Fangen. Toward the end of the 1980s, Bjørgo published a report that studied violence against immigrants and asylums-seekers.

The findings from this report became the point of departure in Bjørgo’s doctoral dissertation on racist and extreme right violence in Scandinavia, a project that started in 1991. The project, which was entitled “Racist and Right-Wing Violence in Scandinavia: Patterns, Perpetrators and Responses” (Bjørgo, 1997), was based on numerous interviews with activists and formers, various documents produced by the groups and others, and some participant observation of demonstrations (see also anthologies Bjørgo & Witte ,1993; Bjørgo, 1995; Kaplan & Bjørgo, 1998).

In one of the chapters in the dissertation, which discussed the most ideological and militant groups in Scandinavia (mainly Sweden) at the time, Bjørgo elaborated on the international dimensions of militant racist movement and network (Bjørgo, 1997). More specifically, he showed how local ‘nationalist’ groups often find ideological inspiration from kindred groups in faraway countries. In Scandinavia, American racist groups and movements were particularly important as role models and ideological inspiration. However, there was also extensive contact with German and British milieus, whereas French and Italian connections were less salient.

Two years after Bjørgo, Katrine Fangen began working with her dissertation project entitled “Pride and Power – A Sociological Interpretation of the Norwegian Radical Nationalist Underground Movement” (1999). The dissertation included a comprehensive introduction, an appendix of 60 pages, and seven published articles (in the overview of publication, Fangen’s work was counted as one scientific monograph). Some of the most impressive parts of Fangen’s work included her yearlong fieldwork among nationalists and neo-Nazis as she joined activists when they carried out various forms of activism, went to concerts, demonstrations, trips to Sweden, and other social gatherings (see also Fangen, 1995).

In parallel with Bjørgo’s and Fangen’s dissertations, several other researchers carried out smaller research projects that were more oriented toward practitioners. Quite often, the backdrop was that some cities or towns had experienced problems of racist violence and milieus and that these places now were looking for knowledge-based input on how to deal with the challenges. Particularly, Yngve Carlsson, but also Thomas Haaland and Frøydis Eidheim, made important contributions to this type of knowledge. Two master’s theses especially made important contributions to the scholarly field within this period. Hilgunn Olsen (2001) wrote about the experiences of being parents to a neo-Nazi, while Tom Olsen (2011) analyzed patterns of joining and leaving neo-Nazi milieus. All these more empirically grounded contributions and theses, however, had—for obvious reasons—a very national focus.

There was not much research on RWE in Norway during the first decade of the new millennium. One reason was that the killing of Benjamin Hermansen and subsequent disintegration of the milieu had made the extreme right a less-potent force in Norway. Another reason was that some of key researchers from the previous period shifted their research focus from the extreme right and (prevention of) racist violence toward crime prevention and terrorism more generally (Bjørgo), immigration, and integration related research (Fangen) and research on gangs (Carlsson and Haaland). As a result, there is, for example, no solid account of the neo-Nazi group Vigrid, which was the only significant group during these years.

Since the terrorist attacks on July 22, 2011, however, there has been numerous studies looking at ideology and tactics of the July 22 terrorist, as well as the patterns of mobilization, and the Islamophobia of the extreme right in Norway more generally. Following the attacks, the research center C-REX has strengthened and internationalized remarkably the research conducted in Norway.

The third bulk of contemporary research on RWE focused on anti-Islam mobilization and Islamophobia. The most comprehensive contribution is the book by Lars Erik Berntzen (2019) that explored the anti-Islamic turn and expansion of the far right in Western Europe, including Norway, North America, and beyond, from 2001 onwards. This book was perhaps the only publication with a clear entangled perspective in the sense that it studied the anti-Islamic turn of the far-right beyond specific nation-states. Instead, it showed how this milieu “has undergone four waves of transnational expansion in the period since 2001” and that this political mobilization in Western Europe and the US takes “form a transnational movement and subculture characterized by a fragile balance between liberal and authoritarian values” (Berntzen 2019, p. ii).

Other important contributions studying the anti-Islamic turn included one article discussing the development from neo-Nazi ideology in the 1990s to contemporary Islamophobic sentiments (Fangen & Nilsen, 2020) and one article that looked more closely at the political ideas of the key anti-Islam group in Norway: SIAN (Bangstad, 2016). The latter article included a few paragraphs about the international inspiration of SIAN. Using a comparative framework, a third article explored why the group PEGIDA mobilized to some extent in Austria and Norway while failing in Sweden and Switzerland (Berntzen & Weisskircher, 2016). Some of the articles analyzing the political subculture of the July 22 terrorist were also important contributions to our understanding of the counterjihad movement. Finally, two MA theses contributed with original research on the worldview of contemporary anti-Islam activists in Norway (Berntzen, 2011) and the socio-demographics and motivation of members of SIAN (Tranøy, 2020). However, both these theses focused on Norwegian groups and activists only.

Researchers have not been the only ones making important contributions to field in recent years. Most importantly, Øyvind Strømmen (2011, 2013, 2014) has published three books in the year the after the terrorist attack. All these books contain elements of both transnational and entangled history but not in a very systematic and explicit manner.

Out of the 63 Swedish publications focusing on post-Cold War period analyzed for this review, most were written either from national or local perspective. However, a great many of them also had an international aspect, whereas explicit pan-Nordic dimension appeared in only a handful. This is somewhat surprising considering one of the main targets of the studies has been the NRM, which aims to form a unified Nordic state. Most of the studies discussed the NRM at least briefly, though there were a few studies focusing solely on the movement. No pan-Nordic studies simultaneously covering all NRM chapters exist. Much of the research, which in some way touches on RWE, has also focused on right-wing populism and ethnic relations (Lööw, 2015).

Thematic selections in Swedish research on RWE have followed the evolution of the field. During the 1980s and 1990s, a center of scholarly attention was on subculturally oriented groups, movements, and activists or on the culture itself. RWE extreme right culture, traditions, and networks have been explored especially in the studies by Heléne Lööw (2000, 2004, 2015). Her published works over almost 40 years have covered the whole Swedish RWE history, analyzing the evolution of Nazism in Sweden from the 1920s until mid-2010s and have become the standard works of the milieu’s history.

When the political violence caused by these groups reached a certain level and they became an important societal issue, studies focused increasingly on different countering and preventive means. Reflecting the growing public interest in RWE in Sweden, there have also been a relatively large number of official studies or reports commissioned by the authorities, as well as related action plans, which have often been launched after some spectacular events. As Mattsson and Johansson (2019) have argued, this approach was especially active in the early 2000s and was rather individualized, so not much attention was given to the movement-level reasons and ideas behind radicalization.

Among the disciplines, although contemporary history has been broadly represented, there has been a growing number of studies in the fields of political science and sociology. Additionally, few studies approached the topic from the perspective of ethnography, and some also stemmed from criminology or pedagogical science.

Especially after the terrorist attack in Norway in 2011, more emphasis in studies has been on terrorism instead of lower intensity political violence. This obviously has appeared especially in Norwegian literature but has had its effect also in Sweden. Mattias Gardell published studies on the racist serial killer Peter Mangs (2015), as well as lone-wolf terrorism (2022). Although his book Gods of the Blood (2003) focused on North American groups, Gardell’s study also illuminated the role of the Nordic pagan ideas in RWE ideology.

Analyzing the threats caused by the milieu, which often target minorities or groups and individuals opposing the extreme right milieu, the growth of the milieu was also described in more recent studies as a threat to liberal democracy as a whole, but no comprehensive longitudinal studies have been conducted. Hate crimes and hate speech have been a topic of interest for researchers (see, e.g., Deland et al., 2010, 2013), and the aspect was present in most of the studies, although not as a main topic.

Christer Mattsson has studied extensively, among other issues, radicalization paths and disengagement and deradicalization. Contemporary events have affected his studies, starting from neo-Nazi violence at a local environment in the 1990s, which led to creation of a pedagogical methodology on how to deal with extremism in schools. Mattsson and Johansson (2019) have since studied how RWE has developed since the 1990s until the present. They have also combined, for example, oral history approaches and social psychological perspectives into their analyses (Mattsson & Johansson, 2022).

Despite all these studies and an increased amount of research, there are still several gaps in knowledge about violent right-wing extremist milieus. In Sweden, as well as elsewhere, there is still a lack of detailed local studies, despite the fact that organizations tend to focus on certain areas, with certain strongholds remaining the same for decades (see Lööw, 2015; Mattsson & Johansson, 2022). Additionally, relevant information regarding the backgrounds of groups and activists is still missing. As Mattsson and Johansson stated, “Despite 25 years of continued, but scattered, studies of the Swedish white supremacist milieus, there has still not been a single attempt to quantify the size of the groups involved and their sociocultural, socio-economic or demographic background” (2019, p. 140). Snapshot studies or reports, often conducted as a response to some urgent, current matter at the national level, cannot fulfill these gaps. Furthermore, most of the studies reviewed have been case studies, with only a few having a comparative setting. Those may have relevance beyond the selected case, but for understanding networking and the international nature of the ideology and movements, this research is not sufficient.

Compared with previous, historical research on RWE, post-Cold War and contemporary studies employed more diverse methodology and research designs. To some extent, this is because the availability of archival sources and especially the data from the security authorities was more limited, and approaches such as online ethnography have become useful tools for data gathering. Thematically, the orientation has been more in questions related to social sciences and media studies. Additionally, preventing and countering efforts have appeared in research, with many studies being reports commissioned by the authorities for this purpose.

The scarcity of research in Denmark regarding the period after the Cold War showed in limited variation regarding themes, research design, and methods. Most studies focused on groups and movements on a relatively descriptive manner, thematically focusing on their potential security threats, and were often based on sources provided by the authorities and newspapers. In our research material, there were no wider scope ethnographic studies, though a few reports have used data produced via interviews.

One sociological analysis from the 1990s stood out thematically as a study analyzing also opposing movements and the subculture (Karpantschof, 1999; see also Karpantschof & Mikkelsen, 2017). In a later study based on social movement theory, Karpantschof and Mikkelsen focused on forms of public actions via protest event analysis, here using public sources, and analyzed claim making by the Danish radical right and movement and countermovement dynamics. Their approach also included a transnational perspective and its effects on public campaigns, and the study offered data on how many events had international participation. Additionally, Christoffer Kølvraa (2019a, 2019b) has recently extended the scholarly analyses of Danish RWE by diving into their cultural imagination.

Any of the analyzed studies have not, however, gone deeper into any comparative setting, and transnational connections were also analyzed from the national perspective, despite heavy intermixing between Nordic activists in Denmark and Southern Sweden. 

Most works on RWE in post-Cold War period Finland covered—to varying degrees—formal organizations, networks, and social movements. Although they largely focused on twenty-first-century groups like the NRM, FDL, and Soldiers of Odin, the PNA in particular was covered by studies that look at the 1990s. Political parties as such do not form the focus of any particular work but are referred to in a number of studies. Koivulaakso et al. (2012), for example, discussed the Finns party, while Jalonen’s (2011) study similarly touched upon those members of the Finns party that supported a counterjihadist ideology. Also, while not constituting a full-fledged political party, the PNA was discussed as an extraparliamentary organization aiming to become a parliamentary one (Hynynen, 1999).

Apart from organizations, right-wing extremist ideologies have been discussed by several works. Jalonen (2011) and Paaso (2012) concentrated on counterjihadist ideology and its Finnish proponents in their research, while Koivulaakso et al. (2012) examined ethnopluralism and other ideologies that have influenced right-wing extremists in twenty-first-century Finland. Sallamaa (2018) furthermore discussed the ideological background of key right-wing extremist groups in the 2010s. Apart from the content of ideologies, their proliferation in the online environment was discussed by Jalonen, Paaso, and Sallamaa, among others.

The subcultural dimension of RWE was, on the other hand, covered to a lesser degree, though Sallamaa’s report did include a section on the contemporary right-wing extremist music scene in Finland. The report, alongside Jokinen’s (2011) book chapter, also discussed the Finnish skinhead movement. Lone-wolf actors have furthermore received a lesser degree of attention in research, although Anders Behring Breivik in particular was discussed by Paaso (2012), Jalonen (2011), and Jokinen (2011).

The right-wing extremist practices and activities that different studies focused upon varied, with few concentrating on just one form. Sallamaa’s report, for example, looked at public activities such as demonstrations and street patrols while also covering the various forms of online activity that the different groups engage in. Kotonen’s (2019) book chapter on the Soldiers of Odin similarly discussed street patrols and demonstrations but also looked at the group’s online presence.

Although political violence was not the specific focus of any single study, many have discussed the topic to varying degrees. Sallamaa’s (2018) report, alongside the book by Koivulaakso et al. (2012), for example, examined the acts of violence and incitement to violence that twenty-first-century Finnish groups like the NRM and Suomi Ensin have engaged in. Those works that concentrated on counterjihadism meanwhile referred to Breivik’s attacks in Norway, although Paaso’s report on the terrorist’s manifesto also discussed “Operaatio ulos!” which is an online Finnish-language handbook on how to plan and execute terror attacks. Jokinen’s book article included a discussion on Finnish skinhead violence in the 1990s and its waning at the turn of the millennium.

It should also be noted that, although works such as Sallamaa’s report provided descriptive accounts of right-wing extremist groups and ideologies, others have tried to answer more specific research questions. Pekonen et al.’s (1999) book chapter, for example, attempted to provide an explanation as to why Finland has lacked large-scale and successful manifestations of RWE after the Second World War. Paaso’s report compared the ideological similarities between Breivik’s manifesto and the opinions expressed by domestic right-wing extremists. Koivulaakso et al. (2012) furthermore elucidated on the relationship between parliamentary right-wing populism and extraparliamentary right-wing extremist movements in Finland.

Few studies employed a distinct methodology to charting their topic. Notable exceptions have been Kotonen’s (2019) book chapter on the Soldiers of Odin, which used thematic content analysis as a methodological instrument, and the author’s book (Kotonen, 2018) on Cold War period and early post-Cold War period RWE, which approached the topic through historical and content analysis. Also, most works lacked a specific research design. Those that have one typically aimed to construct a case study.

Although several studies such as Sallamaa’s report, Jokinen’s book chapter. and the book by Koivulaakso et al. (2012) used prior literature as a source type, the relative lack of earlier research on post-Cold War period RWE in Finland has limited the extent to which it has been possible to utilize such sources. This dearth of earlier research has been partially remedied by the inclusion of media reports as an alternative secondary source.

Among the primary sources used, online material has been a popular choice. Online material has included data gathered from both conventional websites and from the social media. Sources of the latter type have been widely used by Sallamaa in particular. Archival sources, court records, and investigative material compiled by the police represent further types of primary sources and have been used by Kotonen (2018). Yet the primary sources utilized also included interviews with representatives of the right-wing extremist milieu. These data have been compiled by Kotonen (2020, 2019) and Koivulaakso et al. (2012), with Kotonen (2019) furthermore carrying out ethnographical online and offline observation among the Soldiers of Odin.

Studies of contemporary fascism and the radical right in Norway have focused on a variety of themes. When looking specifically at the publications with a pan-Nordic and/or transnational focus, they covered issues like (racist) violence, recruitment, mobilization, online networks, ideology, and strategy. Broadly speaking, the research in the 1990s was more internally oriented and characterized by fieldwork among activists, whereas more recent research was more externally oriented looking at ideologies and pattern of offline and online mobilization.

Most studies focused mainly on Norwegian groups and activists. In these studies, the transnational dimension was only sporadically discussed. At the same time, comparative, transnational, or even entangled perspectives were not completely absent. There were at least two comparative analyses on militant activity in the Nordic countries and on the mobilization by PEGIDA groups, respectively. Moreover, at least one article discussed the emergence of truly transnational groups like the NMR and Generation Identity, though only the former has been somewhat successful in Norway. Finally, one monograph on the counterjihad movement—arguably the most successful contemporary extreme right current in Norway—can be described as more entangled, though without being explicitly discussed as such by the author.

In contrast to what had previously been written about the Norwegian extreme right in the postwar period, Tore Bjørgo’s analyses in his dissertation included both a comparative perspective and transnational dimension. A comparative perspective was used to explore the relationship between macro-level factors such as immigration, employment, and government responses, on the one hand, and levels of racist violence, on the other hand. Bjørgo also adopted a comparative perspective when assessing discursive and ideological similarities and differences between Scandinavian extreme right groups and subcultures. In doing so, he showed how the national discourses of the extreme right was heavily influenced by historical experiences during the Second World War. A similar historical experience made it easier for Norwegian and Danish activists to adopt a similar rhetoric portraying the government as a traitor, like the collaborators during the war. Bjørgo (1997, p. 283) also noted how prominent Norwegian activists wrote regularly in Danish extreme right magazines.

Likewise, although Katrine Fangen’s main focus was the Norwegian groups and activists, she emphasized the transnational dimension of the scene. In a book chapter that compared the beliefs of the Norwegian rightist underground, she noted that the Norwegian group Valkyria had a major impact on like-minded groups/people in Sweden and Denmark: Swedish girls were impressed by Valkyria’s appearance at a concert, giving Valkyria the name “Death Squadron,” and a Danish girl contacted Valkyria wanting to start a similar group. Similarly, in an article about the women and girls in the nationalist movements, Fangen showed how the Norwegian nationalist underground was embedded in an international white power underground, characterized by exchange of information between Norwegian activists and other activists from Europe and the US. Both meetings and concerts included representatives from a wide range of countries. The first white power concert held in Norway in 1995 brought activists from Germany, England, Denmark, Sweden, and the US. Most notably, there was extensive contact with Swedish activists, whom they visited every time they arrange concerts or marches. There was also some cooperation with British activists. The Norwegian division of the British Blood and Honor was founded in 1995, and the Norwegian Anti-AFA and the English Combat 18 collaborated through the printing of a list of Norwegian antiracists in Blood and Honor.

Several researchers have assessed the role of ideology (vs. psychiatry) in the case of the July 22 terrorist (Bjørgo, 2012; Fangen, 2012; Sørensen, 2012). In general, they concluded that ideology played an (important) role, though some aspects of the terrorist’s writing and behavior seemed more related to mental health issues. The idea that ideology was important was also a key assumption in the contribution by Enebakk (2012), who focused on the writings of the blogger Fjordman, the key inspirational source on the manifesto of the terrorist committing the July 22 attack. Other contributions have focused less on ideology and more on target selection, tactical issues, and/or the process of radicalization (Hemmingby & Bjørgo, 2016; Ravndal, 2012a, 2012b, 2013). All these contributions rarely made use of a comparative, transnational, or entangled perspective, though some of them did include important information about the online networks in which the terrorist was embedded. The only three exceptions were two articles by Lars Erik Berntzen (Berntzen & Sandberg, 2014; Sandberg et al., 2014) and colleagues and a monograph by Sindre Bangstad (2014). Although both these articles were single case studies of the July 22 terrorist attack, they explicitly situated the attack within a wider transnational political (i.e., the counterjihad subculture online) and cultural framework (i.e., school shootings as a cultural script for young men).

When looking at patterns of mobilization more broadly, key contributions have explored militant activity in the Nordic region (Ravndal, 2018), the rise of vigilantism with groups like the Soldiers of Odin (Bjørgo & Gjelsvik, 2019), and online mobilization (Haanshuus & Jupskås, 2017). Two contributions have also looked at why extreme right activists in general (Bjørgo & Gjelsvik, 2017), and the neo-Nazi group NMR in particular (Ravndal & Bjørgo, 2020) have usually refrained from engaging in violent activity—or at least engaging in much less violence than they could have and would like to, based on their ideology.

Research in Sweden has covered a wide variety of issues, although the focus on certain organizations has still somewhat been prevalent. Studies, which we have identified as having a pan-Nordic dimension, also addressed, among others, such issues as engagement and disengagement from radical milieus, online activism and culture, and psychological aspects.

Research designs and methodologies have, compared with earlier periods, become more diverse. As an example, Mattsson and Johansson (2019, 2022) used a combination of text and document analysis, interviewing both former and current activists, and ethnographic approaches formed the basis of data collection in their studies. Both of their works focused much on the NRM and on the individuals within the movement. These aspects were both studied methodologically and as belonging ethnographically among the richest produced by the scholars on the current Nordic national socialist movements.

Diversity in research designs was, besides general methodological development, also ruled by research themes and limitations in the data. Coming to an analysis of the most recent movements, archival studies typically were not an option because authorities set limitations to their use in research. Ethnographically oriented field work, including typically both online and offline observations and combined with interviews (see Askanius, 2019; Mattsson & Johansson, 2019), has, to some extent, replaced archival approaches. Along with these, few attempts to specifically address the role of new media, such as podcasts, has been done (see, e.g., Lundström & Lundström 2021). Also, different kinds of big data methods, such as data mining or statistical approaches, have increased to some extent, though these were still not a main trend and have often been done only in student works.

In the 1990s, the field in Norway was dominated by two to three researchers only. Since the terrorist attacks on July 22, there has been a growing number of researchers in Norway focusing on the extreme right. This has arisen mainly because of the establishment of a new research center, the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX), at the University of Oslo. This center includes more senior scholars like Tore Bjørgo (who is also the director of the center) and Katrine Fangen, as well as a new generation of scholars, such as political scientist Jacob Aasland Ravndal, anthropologist Cathrine M. Thorleifsson, sociologist Lars Erik Berntzen, and political scientist Anders Ravik. C-REX also funds or hosts several upcoming scholars from various disciplines within the social sciences, including Birgitte Haanshuus, Christopher Fardan, Ingvild Magnæs Gjelsvik, Håvard Haugstvedt, and Astrid Rambøl, who are currently doing their PhD on the extreme right and/or related topics. In addition to C-REX scholars and affiliated, the field of research includes the anthropologist Sindre Bangstad Jupskås, historian Elisabetta Cassina Wolff, and the author Øyvind Strømmen, who have made important contributions to our understanding of the contemporary extreme right in Norway and beyond.

In Finland, the situation is to some extent the same as in earlier periods, and most of the studies have been produced by a handful of researchers, some of whom have not continued with the topic, though there is a growing number of master’s level studies. Tommi Kotonen and Daniel Sallamaa are currently only active researchers of RWE, focusing partly or entirely on the post-Cold War period in Finland. Danish scholarly activities around the topic of RWE are even more limited, and most of the studies have been produced as commissioned reports by the authorities, with Anne-Sofie Hemmingsen and Chris Holmsted Larsen being the most active researchers. Also, both Finland and Denmark lack any academic research centers or institutions addressing RWE. In Sweden, the founding of the Segerstedt Institute at the University of Gothenburg, and, with a broader focus, the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR) at the Uppsala University have, among other efforts, helped expand the field. The former is led by Christer Mattsson, and at CEMFOR, Mattias Gardell acted previously as a research director, with Michal Krzyzanowski currently holding the position. In Sweden, as identified in this review, the research field is still dominated by relatively few authors, with the most active ones being, along with several PhD students, Tina Askanius, Christer Mattsson, Helen Lööw, Mattias Gardell, and Mats Deland.

The pan-Nordic or transnational dimensions are more visible in studies of post-Cold War period than in earlier periods, though most of studies have been conducted from a national perspective. This development is at least partly because of certain Nordic movements explicitly aiming to form organizations beyond their national borders. Studies on the Soldiers of Odin and NMR exemplified this, though the milieu have also generally become international with the help of the internet and social media. What this development means for the RWE activism has not been thoroughly analyzed so far, though some studies have addressed bigger trends (see, e.g., Ravndal, 2021), and the right-wing terrorism and violence dataset advanced the possibilities for comparison (Ravndal, 2016).

Except for Ravndal’s (2018) analysis of extreme right militancy in the four Nordic countries, which is a truly comparative study aiming to explain why there is consistently higher levels of activity in Sweden compared with the other three countries, the other contributions were mainly single case studies focusing on (Norwegian) individuals and individual groups. However, when analyzing the groups, the authors explicitly highlighted the transnational dimension (Bjørgo & Gjelsvik, 2019).

In the chapters on the Soldiers of Odin, which appeared in an edited volume on similar groups across the globe, the chapters on the Soldiers of Odin in Finland, Sweden, and Norway built upon cross-national interactions (Bjørgo & Gjelsvik, 2019; Gardell, 2019; Kotonen, 2019). Regarding Norway, the authors stressed the initial interaction between Finnish and Norwegian branches. They also noted that the Norwegian SOO chapter distanced itself from the Finnish SOO, though it regained its ties with the international SOO organization, which was controlled by a Finnish and Maltese leader. Similarly, in the article about the NMR, the authors both discussed not only what they referred to as “the emergence and transnational evolution” (our italics) of the NRM, but also how the NRM’s current leader reacted to a significant international event, namely the mass shooting of Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019 (Ravndal & Bjørgo, 2020). Moreover, the transnational dimension of the NMR was further elaborated upon in another contribution, which looked at a rare phenomenon: nationalist organizations operating transnationally (Ravndal, 2020).

Several Finnish works also included a discussion on the pan-Nordic and transnational dimension of RWE, although it has seldom been the specific focus of research. Kotonen’s (2019) book chapter on the Soldiers of Odin looked at how the organization spread beyond Finland’s borders, paying special attention to the group’s Swedish chapter and the role that Finns have held within that chapter. Sallamaa’s (2018) report similarly looked at the Soldiers of Odin’s Finnish and foreign chapters while also shortly describing the forms of interaction between them. The NMR, as a pan-Nordic organization, furthermore figured as a topic in several studies. Sallamaa’s report included the most extensive academic Finnish-language assessment of the organization to date and also featured a section on the international connections of the NRM’s Finnish chapter. The Finnish chapter’s ties to Sweden in particular were discussed by the report, as was the organization’s strategic objective of establishing a Nordic national socialist state. The NRM was also widely covered by Koivulaakso et al. (2012), with the Finnish chapter’s international ties being discussed in the book. Jokinen’s (2011) book chapter furthermore featured an account of the NRM’s Finnish chapter and the organization’s overall Nordic structure.

The pan-Nordic and international ties of other twenty-first-century organizations were also brought up in a few works. Sallamaa’s report featured a discussion on the international connections of FDL, with the group’s participation in counterjihadist events in Sweden and Denmark noted by the author. Koivulaakso et al. similarly discussed the FDL’s ties to other chapters of the defense league movement.

The transnational nature of ideologies and cross-border flow of right-wing extremist rhetoric furthermore formed a part of some studies. Paaso’s (2012) report on Breivik’s manifesto compared the ideas expressed in the text with those professed by Finnish counterjihadists while also identifying certain websites and online blogs, such as Jihad Watch, Gates of Vienna, and Brussels Journal, that have acted as central nodes in the transnational proliferation of counterjihadism. The transnational nature of counterjihadism was similarly discussed in Jalonen’s (2011) book chapter, which examined the emergence of the ideology in Finland and abroad and counterjihadist movement’s connections to domestic parliamentary politics.

Although the topic of pan-Nordic and transnational connections was largely covered by works focusing on the twenty-first century, certain studies also looked at the transnational ties of Finnish right-wing extremist organizations during the 1990s. The New Radical Right in Finland, a 1999 volume edited by Pekonen, included two chapters that looked at the international connections of the PNA (Hynynen, 1999; Pekonen et al., 1999). The group’s participation in a 1996 May Day rally by France’s Front National was, for example, mentioned in the book, as were the transnational ties of the Finnish neo-Nazi leader Pekka Siitoin. The subcultural dimension of transnational ties was, yet again, covered to a lesser degree. Sallamaa touched upon the topic when describing the international connections of the post-Cold War right-wing extremist music scene in Finland, but the topic was largely ignored by other studies.

Danish research, as noted above, has been relatively scarce compared with other Nordic countries. Previous studies on RWE subculture and organizations did not have explicit transnational or comparative approaches and have been relatively descriptive by nature, especially regarding the reports commissioned by the authorities. However, analyzing the right-wing extremist landscape (Karpantschof & Mikkelsen, 2017) have produced some research data regarding pan-Nordic cooperation, and studies focusing more on the ideological and cultural aspects have extended our understanding of the pan-Nordic dimension (see Kølvraa, 2019a, 2019b).

To a greater extent, research conducted in Sweden has focused on the NMR (see, e.g., Askanius, 2019; Mattsson & Johansson, 2020), so it has had a pan-Nordic element, though this is often approached from the national perspective. Along with these, the studies on the Soldiers of Odin mentioned above have explored the Swedish part of the network and their linkages with other Nordic countries (Gardell, 2019). A recent study by Mattias Gardell (2021) on lone-wolf terrorists extended the Nordic aspect beyond geographically defined Nordic countries, analyzing the Nordic ideas in writings of North American authors while exploring the global movement.