The last decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of neoliberalism and the end of the Cold War—events that seemed to announce not just the demise of communism but the global triumph of capitalism and liberal democracy. Flying in the face of such optimism, the first decades of the twenty-first century witnessed a worldwide resurgence of the political right, above all in its ethnonationalist, antiliberal, and even fascist iterations.
The mission of the Journal of Right-Wing Studies is to be the premier forum for the comprehensive study of the political right and the leading resource for understanding today’s rightward turn. We aim to shed light on the politics of the moment—narrowly, by investigating the nature and origins of recent transformations on the right, and broadly, by promoting the study of the right in its historical and cultural diversity. Without collapsing distinctions, we endeavor to understand the flow of ideas, language, and loyalties across the right-wing spectrum.
Fulfilling these aims requires us to go beyond the horizon of a single discipline or academic specialty. We have two primary goals:
- JRWS seeks to anchor right-wing studies as an emerging interdisciplinary field and to serve as a global hub for interdisciplinary study of the right. While our scope is limited to publication in English, we welcome contributions from scholars working in multiple fields, time periods, and national, regional, and language contexts. We anticipate submissions from diverse methodological perspectives.
- JRWS seeks to showcase essay-quality writing that can make academic research accessible to journalists, activists, policy specialists, voters, and the interested public.