Uncivil Society Organizations (UCSOs) mimic the organizational structures of legitimate Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) but promote illiberal goals like weakening human rights and universalism. UCSOs include groups like Pegida and Generation Identity which share nativist positions and have formed international networks to spread their ideology globally. They exploit concepts like free speech and minority rights to portray themselves as victims and justify targeting opponents while working to replace the current international system with one based on ethnic particularism.

1. Uncivil Society in the
International System
Dr. Andreas Önnerfors
Associate Professor in the History of Sciences and Ideas
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
andreas.onnerfors@gu.se
https://gu-se.academia.edu/AndreasÖnnerfors

2. Image from a PEGIDA UK ralley, 2016

3. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the
International System
• Civil Society, the ’third sector’ beyond public and private (business)
• INGO:s = International Non-Governmental Organizations such as such
as Red Cross
• NGO:s = non-governmental organizations on state, regional or local
level, i e a local voluntary organization running a soup kitchen or
shelter
• Private Charities (that not are corporations) such as Gates Foundation
• Churches / religious groups / political parties ? Sometimes included as
CSOs, sometimes not due to their bias and exclusiveness and since
they are not clearly located in the ’third sector’

4. Normative expectations towards CSOs in the
international system
• Mitigating downsides of international collaboration/politics, bridgning
national self-interest
• Mitigating the lack of global governance (UN mainly consensus based IGO =
Inter-Governmental Organization)
• ’Neutral’ advocacy / lobby / pressure groups for humanitarian causes
(Amnesty International, Médecins sans Frontièrs etc)
• Providing with relief and assistance in armed conflicts and crises
• Substituting the delivery of political goods in ’failed states’
• Developmental work
• Accountable and resiliant (?) partners in CSO-partnerships

5. What is ’Uncivil Society’?
“Uncivil society is a form of political self-organisation with four aims:
(1) The removal of the normative ideal of a political community ruled by law.
(2) The weakening of standards the universal human rights regime.
(3) The promotion of aggressive and exclusionary principles of (populist) particularism.
(4) The abuse of constitutionally granted liberties in order to promote their opposite,
mainly in order to attack political opponents and to target perceived enemy groups.
In organisational terms, Uncivil Society Organisations (‘UCSOs’) mimic the features of CSOs
such as names, organisational culture, symbols, forms of online and offline mobilization,
PR, fundraising, voluntary action and internal as well external solidarity. Their claim is to
represent popular political will without mediation.” (Önnerfors, 2020)
Source: https://www.blogalstudies.com/post/international-relations-of-hate-how-the-
radical-right-has-conquered-territory-in-the-international)

6. TIME Magazine
1 February 2016
Example PEGIDA – Patriotische Europäer Gegen die
Islamisierung des Abendlandes, ‘Patriotic Europeans Against
the Islamization of the Occident ’:
• established in 2014
• celebrated its 200th rally in February 2020
• originated in Dresden, formerly GDR
• offshoots in Germany, but also internationally, for instance
PEGIDA UK (2016)

7. Location within the international ’counter-jihad
movement’ (CJM) since 2001 / 2011 / 2012
• ’Stop the Islamization of Nations’ / ’Stop the Islamization of Europe’ styles itself as
an international organization with a united normative goal
• clear organizational and personal ties between CJM and radical right organizations
such as the English Defence League (EDL)

8. Location within the European ’Generation Identity’
• ’Génération Identitaire’ has French origins in the so-
called ’Nouvelle Droite’ blending German interwar
conservatism with elements of ’68-societal crititque and
traditional conservative and nationalist positions
• the aim is to conquer and change the cultural frames of
politics, also called ’metapolitics’
• strongly anti-globalization / anti-Americanism
• promoting ’ethnopluralism’, ’Europe of 100 flags’
• belief in the ’Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory
• GI has numerous European offshoots, for instance in
the UK and Ireland
• actvisim that more reminds of traditional left-wing
actions
• active use of the internet and the logics of social media,
’prosumers’, sharing, likes, memes
• offline events staged to create online dissemination

9. Shared positions
• ’idealism of realism’: populist self-interest is the basis of international
relations => mixophobia / ethnopluralism
• yet a shared civilizational frame: ’European values’, Christianity but
also radical agnosticism/secularism
• Rejection of societal elites and checks-and-balances such as
independent judicial institutions
• Decision-making based on direct expressions of ’popular will’ of the
national community
• Exploitation of human rights in the international system

10. Hijacking Human Rights
• Reversal of the language of human rights for own, particularist and exclusionary
purposes
• Historically: HR delimit infringements, protect minorities, ensure access and fulfilment of
rights
• Instead: ’free speech defenses’, pretended minority protection (’white race faces
extinction’) and pretended support for LGBTQI+-rights (’homo-’ and femo-nationalism’)
• liberal speech used for for illiberal ends
• Example of free speech defenses: Tommy Robinson, former leader of EDL and Pegida UK,
2018 ’Free Tommy’-campaign
• victimization and claims of being silenced

11. Conclusion
• USCOs have moved their activities from the domestic to the global
level
• nativism / supremacy / ‘replacement’
• shared conspiracy imagination
• migration flows
• a global racial war/antagonism
• crisis of masculinity / ‘traditional gender roles’
• climate change denial – eco-fundamentalism
they have turned into actors in the “totality of interactions within the
international system” (Buzan 2018)

12. Find out more
• “The International Politics of Hate: How the Radical Right Exploits the International
System”, School of Blogal Studies, 27 January 2020,
https://www.blogalstudies.com/post/international-relations-of-hate-how-the-
radical-right-has-conquered-territory-in-the-international
• “Radical-Right Radicalization, From the Domestic to the Global”, CARR post 11,
August 2019, published in Fair Observer, 24 September 2019:
https://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/radical-right-radicalization-global-
networks-security-news-88955/
• “Hijacking Human Rights in the Swedish Radical Right”, CARR post 9, May 2019, also
published in Fair Observer, https://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/radical-
right-freedom-expression-human-rights-sweden-europe-news-13251/
• “Conference Report – The Global Rise of Nativism and Illiberalism: A Conversation on
the Contemporary Political Pathology”, CARR post 7, 16 January 2019,
http://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/2019/01/16/conference-report-the-global-rise-
of-nativism-and-illiberalism-a-conversation-on-the-contemporary-political-
pathology/