9/11 at 25: How the ‘War on Terror’ helped mainstream Europe’s far right

Senior researcher with Georgetown University’s The Bridge Initiative. Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the political order built in their aftermath continues to shape Europe. The Global War on Terror (GWOT) helped far right parties in Europe gain political prominence they had long been denied. Islamophobic narratives that shaped global policy after 2001 legitimised an anti-Muslim racism that had already been building within Europe’s far right for years. Before September 11, far right parties in Europe had been largely marginalised within the continent’s multi-party systems.