Same Playbook, Different Players: Charting shared tactics of anti-democratic movements from Türkiye to Texas

Over the last decade, far-right populists in Europe, North America, and around the world have transformed from fringe groups into influential power players, often by deftly exploiting fear and uncertainty within the democratic majority generated by fast-changing shifts in technology, migration, culture, and climate. Their parallel successes are not happening in a vacuum, but are being developed and resourced by political strategists in different regions, many of whom are working in unique contexts but utilizing familiar tactics: maximize fear and mistrust of perceived others to cultivate sympathy for simplistic anti-democratic alternatives. In this panel, Miriam Juan-Torres, head of research for OBI’s Democracy & Belonging Forum, will offer insights into the shared strategies and connections between anti-democratic actors in diverse parts of the world, and how we might come together to effectively counter their instrumentalization of othering.