Hiding in Plain Sight – The Transnational Right-Wing Extremist Active Club Network

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University jointly hosted a virtual webinar on Friday, September 22, 2023, focusing on the analysis of the potential threats affiliated with the largest transnational right-wing extremist (RWE/REMVE) combat sports network, called Active Clubs.

The overall objective of the Active Club White Supremacy 3.0 strategy is the creation of a shadow or stand-by army of trained and capable RWE/REMVE individuals who can be activated when the need for coordinated violent action on a larger scale arises. If Active Clubs are allowed to continue to operate and multiply, the likelihood of targeted political violence and terrorism by their members against supposed enemies of the “white race” (e.g., Jewish people, People of Color, Muslims, and LGTBQI+ people) will increase. The panel was moderated by Senior Director Hans-Jakob Schindler and featured three leading experts who shared their analysis of the objectives, strategies, strengths, and weaknesses of this network, which continues to grow quickly and has spread from the U.S. to Canada and to at least twelve countries in Europe.

• Alexander Ritzmann, Senior Advisor for the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and Radicalization Awareness Network (RAN) of the European Commission
• Jon Lewis, Research Fellow at the Program on Extremism
• Morgan Lynn Moon, Investigative Researcher for the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)