Countries across the Western world are witnessing a surge in far-right movements that until recently had been relegated to the political margins. This phenomenon was starkly evident with Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US presidential election, and was reinforced by his return to power in 2024 and his adoption of a far-right agenda. Election results in several European countries have also revealed a shift in popular sentiment that is strengthening the presence of far-right movements in the political landscape, a warning that the far-right agenda is creeping into the heart of political life in major Western countries. This is creating a new political reality that transcends national frameworks and has far-reaching global repercussions.

Various approaches have been put adopted to explain the rise of the far right. They can broadly be classified under three headings: the economic aspect, which argues that economic crises and social inequality played a decisive role in fuelling this rise; the cultural dimension, which focuses on issues of identity, immigration, and integration; and the role of new media, which emphasises the impact of the spread of the internet, social media, and digital platforms.

The continued rise of these movements from the margins to the centre, the disintegration of traditional political patterns, and the far right’s transition from engaging in non-institutional populism to presenting itself as an organised alternative to the centre-left and right, all confirm that we are witnessing a profound structural transformation, one that requires a new critical approach that goes beyond prevailing interpretations, especially given this movement’s hostility to liberal democracy.

Siyasat Arabiya is preparing a special issue to examine the problematic rise of the far right in North America and Europe, its repercussions, impact, and reactions from the non-Western world, titled “From the Margins to the Mainstream: The Rise of the Far Right and its Implications for Domestic and International Policy.”

This issue specifically seeks to explore what the rise of the extreme right means for the future of liberal democracy. It addresses questions of pluralism in Western societies, the stability of the international order, the future of international relations, international law, and human rights. It also discusses the implications of this rise for the behaviour of Western governments, their growing partnerships with authoritarian regimes in the non-Western world, and their identification with aggressive, racist, and colonial tendencies, as evidenced by the support of most Western right-wing movements for Israel and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The issue also offers the opportunity to explore equivalent phenomena in non-Western contexts, such as the cases of India and Argentina.

Contributors’ Guidelines

Siyasat Arabiya welcomes research proposals on the aforementioned themes, including those that address theoretical or applied dimensions or case studies (for more details, please see the Background Paper). It will accept proposals of approximately 250 words until Saturday, 30 August 2025. The journal’s editorial board commits to notifying authors of whether their proposals have been accepted or rejected, by Thursday, 9 October 2025.

Authors of accepted proposals will have until Saturday, 25 April 2026 to submit the final version of their papers, adhering to the formal and substantive research guidelines of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. All submitted papers are subject to peer review, and approval of a research proposal does not automatically guarantee its acceptance for publication, as only full papers that pass the peer review process will be published.

Research proposals should be submitted via the researchers’ system. For any additional questions, please contact the journal by email, at: siyasat.arabia@dohainstitute.edu.qa.