Jeffrey Kaplan

Habib University

When Texas Klansman Louis Beam wrote his seminal screed “Leaderless Resistance” in The Seditionist in 1992, he also wrote a lesser-known companion piece advising “Patriots” on how to use a computer or, failing that, offering instructions on setting up a telephone bulletin board for tech-challenged adherents. Beam was tactically prescient, but it to...

Anti-Semitism in Hungary., The Hungarian jewish community.

Wave theory made a unique contribution to the study of terrorism by positing a generational model that linked contemporaneous global terrorist groups based on their shared characteristics of ideology/theology, strategy/tactics, and visions for the future. Although wave theory is focused on the modern period, from the late 19th century to the presen...

While most observers classified the demonstrators called to Washington by President Trump as denizens of the far right, a closer examination of those arrested for entering the Capitol reveal a strikingly diverse group. Only a small percentage fit the description of members of the radical right. Rather, the most common thread was fealty to the Presi...

In Finland, there is a joke of some vintage that goes roughly like this: When God created the world, He took the angels on a tour of the Earth. The key, He assured the Heavenly Host, is balance. There are people with light skin and with dark skin. There are hot regions and cold ones. There are deserts and jungles. But this, He said proudly, pointin...

Before there was hybrid warfare or its more innocuously styled component information warfare, there were Soviet Active Measures (Aктивные мероприятия). Conceived in 1948 and fully implemented by the 1970s, Active Measures were a palate of techniques designed to both deceive the West and to turn Western public opinion toward whatever the Soviet poli...

Introduction to Jeffrey Kaplan, Apocalypse, Revolution and Terrorism: From the Sicari to the American Revolt Against the Modern World

Conclusion to Jeffrey Kaplan, Apocalypse, Revolution and Terrorism: From the Sicari to the American Revolt Against the Modern World

Introduction to Jeffrey Kaplan, Apocalypse, Revolution and Terrorism: From the Sicari to the American Revolt Against the Modern World

This article examines the American radical right’s fascination with apocalyptic millenarianism through the apocalyptic literature the movement has either generated or, as with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, adopted as its own. These works are not all of a kind however; there are distinct categories into which these works fall. These are: 1) L...

Following the first installment of this series, where the historical origins of modern white supremacy were explored in depth, and a subsequent essay that examined the ways white supremacy has influenced mainstream American politics, here are three of the nation’s foremost scholars on white supremacy, discussing similar issues at length. This is th...

Following the first part of this series, where the historical origins of modern white supremacy were explored in depth, and a subsequent essay that examined the ways white supremacy has influenced mainstream American politics, here are three of the nation’s foremost scholars on white supremacy, discussing similar issues at length. Jeffrey Kaplan is...

In the beginning faith was the alpha and omega of revolutionary dreams and terrorist actions. This article will examine case studies among the Peoples of the Book—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—for religious terrorism is not the product of one faith. It argues that the cultural resonance of each movement examined offers a blank slate on which con...

This article details the long-standing struggle within the American far right between those whose mission it is to resist the perceived subversion of international communism and its neo-Soviet successors now in power in the Kremlin and those whose mission is dedicated to preserving the White Race from the twin threats of miscegenation and marginali...

"Life During Wartime: Active Measures in the Microchip Era" traces the evolution of the Soviet Active Measures campaign from the dawn of the Cold War in the late 1940s through their near abandonment in the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras. It focuses in particular on the campaign focusing on peace and disarmament, especially in their application to ecume...

T: "Life During Wartime: Active Measures in the Microchip Era" traces the evolution of the Soviet Active Measures campaign from the dawn of the Cold War in the late 1940s through their near abandonment in the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras. It focuses in particular on the campaign focusing on peace and disarmament, especially in their application to ec...

Wave theory made a unique contribution to the study of terrorism by positing a generational model that linked contemporaneous global terrorist groups based on their shared characteristics of ideology/theology, strategy/tactics, and visions for the future. Although wave theory is focused on the modern period, from the late 19th century to the presen...

In the deepest depths of my Cold War childhood, I recall asking my father ‘‘what is Communism?’’ It was in school, on television, in comic books, and on the radio. The American anti-Communist crusade of the late 1950s was the stuff of nightmares for grade school children for whom duck and cover drills were made comprehensible by a civil defense hel...

Jeffrey Kaplan has been one of the most influential scholars of new religious movements, extremism and terrorism. His pioneering use of interpretive fieldwork among radical and violent subcultures opened up new fields of scholarship and vastly increased our understanding of the beliefs and activities of extremists. This collection features many of...

This article focuses on the apocalyptic zeitgeist of the Islamic State through the lens of what we call the New Tribalism. It finds that IS emerged from the Al Qaeda (AQ) milieu, but soon split with AQ as the messianic excitement surrounding Al-Baghdadi and his teachings grew. In common with previous millennial/messianic movements in all three “Peo...

In this article, we endeavor to shed new light on the consequences of tribalism in the present day, one of the most important of which is the threat posed by lone wolf actors and the emergence of autonomous cells that operate with no central direction. To better acquaint the reader with the theoretical models used in this article—in particular the...

This article examines the development of social media as a tool for recruitment and radicalization in a variety of belief systems. Methodologically, it employs cultic milieu theory which posits a milieu of oppositional belief systems that exist in concentric neighborhoods located in time and space by their degree of opposition to mainstream society...

This paper argues however, that nature religiosity can have its dark side, for National Socialism too was a religion of nature which was built upon the rock of selected streams of nineteenth century German romantic and occult philosophy.

This article critically examines the publications of Prof. David C. Rapoport. Beginning with the early “Moses, Charisma, and Covenant” (1979), the article follows the development of Prof. Rapoport’s study of religiously motivated terrorism, noting the deep strains of religiosity and biblical knowledge that permeates much of his writing. The article...

With the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, almost 10 years after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., it would seem logical that the long-sought turning point in the American War on Terror had been reached. Yet amid media coverage and blogosphere reactions, there were no ticker tape parades, “Mission Accomplished” banners, or rallies in which crowds wave...

The central focus of this book is a small but vitally important group of movements that constitute a distinct 'fifth wave' of modern terrorism, here called the "New Tribalism". Terrorist Groups and the New Tribalism examines a collection of terrorist or insurgent movements whose similarity in tactics, strategic vision and desire to radically reshap...

This essay examines the history, strategy and tactics of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a millenarian terrorist group that originated among the Acholi tribe in Northern Uganda. Today, its operations focus on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but it is active in Uganda, the Sudan and the Central African Republic. The LRA is composed of approximatel...

The Theory When Professor David Rapoport gave me the opportunity to read an early draft of his groundbreaking four waves theory of modern international terrorism, I was immediately taken with it. [1] For a scholar trained as a cultural historian, how could it be otherwise? What Dr. Rapoport had done in essence was distill a lifetime of study into a...

This article builds on David Rapoport's Four Waves Theory by identifying several anomalous movements which did not appear to precisely fit with the internationalist model posited in Rapoport's Four Waves. Specifically, groups which I have called Fifth Wave movements have turned inward, becoming localistic rather than international, and manifest int...

This article examines the sharp rise in hate crime directed at Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim following the September 11 attacks on the United States. The intense phase of these attacks comprised approximately nine weeks, after which the number of hate crimes fell sharply. The article attributes the abrupt fall in hate crime to four variab...

1 Introduction 2 The Cult, the Cultic Milieu and Secularization 3 Diggers, Wolfs, Ents, Elves and Expanding Universes: Global Bricolage and the Question of Violence within the Subcultures of Radical Environmentalism 4 The Historical Communal Roots of Ultraconservative Groups: Earlier American Communes That Have Shaped Today's Far Right 5 Neo-Shaman...

White Aryan Resistance (WAR) and the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) are two American-based white-supremacist or neo-fascist groupuscules whose respective leaders, Tom Metzger and Matt Hale, were quick to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by the Internet and the World Wide Web in particular. This analysis, first, locates both WAR...

For some, the fin de siècle came as a relief, for others a disappointment, for many more an embarrassment. Certainly, New Year’s Eve 1999 hardly lived up to it’s billing. Apocalyptic expectations were widespread, as they perhaps were in the Year 1000. This time around however, the scenarios of immanent doom and destruction were diverse and, at leas...

This article examines the various new religious movements which are currently active in Finland. The somewhat ironic title of the article refers to the remarkable homogeneity of the Finnish religious field. In Finland, more than 80 percent of Finns profess membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Yet underneath the surface of Finni...

Kaplan takes an in-depth look at the religious and cultic aspects of American national socialism in the post-war era. Beginning with the founder of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, in the late 1950s, he follows the development of occult beliefs and practices in the tiny and fractious American neo-Nazi movement. He emphasizes as wel...

The article details fieldwork methodology employed in the study of the radical right and other volatile religious and political movements. From: Kaplan, Jeffrey. "Reflections on the Interpretive Approach to the Study of New Religious Movements." In Negotiating Spaces on the Common Ground: Selected Papers of the 3rd and 4th International Tartu Conf...

The first question that occurs to a foreign observer of the contemporary Finnish far right wing scene invariably must be: ‘What is there to compare’? If there is a single observation to be made, it would be that Finland seems uniquely endowed with a dearth of right wing movements, and moreover, Finland has comparatively little right wing activism o...

The ‘leaderless resistance’ concept has been a long‐standing subject of internal debate in the American radical right. It emerged originally as a prescription for irregular warfare against invading ‘communist’ troops in the early 1960s. Turned against the American government rather than hostile foreign invaders, the tactic was employed by a few of...

The article traces the history of racialist Odinism and its differentiation from Asatru, which shares both pantheon and rituals, but which rejects racism or exclusionary beliefs. It includes both archival and field work, including interviews with adherents of both camps.

W HY ARE Americans joining private armies to fight the American government, while defining their actions as patriotism?" Kenneth S. Stern asks. In the wake of Ruby Ridge, Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing, public officials and private citizens have pondered the sudden appearance of the citizen militias. Many wonder whether the rapid growth of mili...

The murder of Dr David Gunn in 1993 by Michael Griffin made a decisive break with the pro‐life rescue movement's 20‐year history of non‐violent protest against abortion in America. That act opened the floodgates to other violent attacks on doctors, and brought to public notice a violent splinter sect of the larger millenarian subculture dedicated t...

This article offers a typology of radical right wing movements which emphasizes their roles in what may be termed an oppositional community. The examination stresses both their interdependence through the application of Colin Campbell's theory of the cultic milieu and the movements’ isolation from the American cultural mainstream, a graphic picture...

Kaplan, Jeffrey. Radical Religion in America : Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997. Chapter Page Introduction 1 1 The American Millennial Community 16 2 Christian Identity 129 3 Odinism and Ásatrú 194 4 The B’nai Noah 273 5 The Anti-Cult Movement/ Watchdog Groups 3...

It is popularly believed that the millenarian Christian Identity theology movement in the United States is inextricably associated with revolutionary violence. This article examines the Church of Israel, an important center of Identity theology, to determine whether or not that popular impression is consistent with the facts in this case and with t...

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Identity Christianity Today: A Theology of Violence? Chapter 3: An Apocalypse unremarked: An American Millennial Community and the Seven Laws of Noah Chapter 4: The Reconstructed traditions: The Reawakening of the Asatru and Odinist Communities Chapter 5: The Two Faces of Gush Emunim Chapter 6: THe Organized...