European Security at the Extreme: Domestic Political Changes and Regional Security Cooperation

Far-right politics has emerged as a growing feature of international security due to their effects on states’ commitment to international cooperation. Far-right parties often oppose foreign interventions and are concerned with their sovereignty, but they do not stop cooperation. While we know that they often take extreme positions on traditional security concerns, securitize new issues, and oppose formal policymaking processes, we still do not know their implications for security organizations' functioning. This paper investigates how far-right parties affect security organizations. I contend that they affect security IOs in various ways, depending on their ideological priorities and the environment of the IO in question. Exploring far-right influences on different governments in Italy and drawing on elite interviews in Rome and Brussels, the paper contributes to expanding our understanding of far-right influences on international politics.