Right-Wing Terrorism In Europe Since 1980

By: Bruce Hoffman

This paper recounts right wing terrorist activities in Italy, West Germany, and France since 1980, a year in which there was a dramatic increase in the number of such events.

The author suggests that this surge may have resulted from official and public denigration of previous right-wing terrorism, and cautions against falling into the same apathy again.

He reviews the international ties among terrorist groups, including a new affinity between right and left extremists.

He concludes that, although there has been a general decline in neo-Nazi/neo-fascist terrorism since the 1980 bombings, the threat posed by right-wing extremists in Germany, France, and, to a lesser extent, Italy has not subsided.

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