12 - Formulating Policy Responses to the Right-Wing Threat

Summary

This chapter discusses the challenges of developing local and national policy responses to white supremacist and far-right extremism in the United States. The chapter proceeds in three sections. The first section offers an overview of recent policy changes and responses to the rising threat of white supremacist extremism, domestic extremism, and “home-grown violent extremism” from the far right, spurred in large part by global and domestic terror attacks and thwarted plots. The second section traces ongoing policy dilemmas. Policymakers face a situation in which white supremacist extremism will almost certainly get worse as the USA faces unstable and highly contested election seasons, ongoing disinformation campaigns, and the insufficiency of single-platform bans to curtail hate clusters. The chapter’s final section offers policy recommendations, including a focus on greater transnational engagement and more strategic ways to share expertise between academic scholars and local, state, and national policymakers. There is a need for improved national research capacity and expertise, and for pathways to support local community engagement, communication, and preventative education.