ABSTRACT

This edited volume investigates for the first time the impact of conspiracy theories upon the understanding of Europe as a geopolitical entity as well as an imagined political and cultural space.

Focusing on recent developments, the individual chapters explore a range of conspiratorial positions related to Europe. In the current climate of fear and threat, new and old imaginaries of conspiracies such as Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have been mobilised. A dystopian or even apocalyptic image of Europe in terminal decline is evoked in Eastern European and particularly by Russian pro-Kremlin media, while the EU emerges as a screen upon which several narratives of conspiracy are projected trans-nationally, ranging from the Greek debt crisis to migration, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodological perspectives applied in this volume range from qualitative discourse and media analysis to quantitative social-psychological approaches, and there are a number of national and transnational case studies.
 
This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of extremism, conspiracy theories and European politics.

chapter 1|21 pages

Between internal enemies and external threats

How conspiracy theories have shaped Europe – an introduction
ByAndreas Önnerfors, André Krouwel

chapter 2|14 pages

The New European Order? Euroscepticism and conspiracy belief

ByAndré Krouwel, Jan Willem van Prooijen

chapter 3|18 pages

The Eurabia conspiracy theory

ByEirikur Bergmann

chapter 4|22 pages

Metaphors of invasion

Imagining Europe as endangered by Islamisation
ByEstrella Gualda

chapter 5|21 pages

Der Grosse Austausch

Conspiratorial frames of terrorist violence in Germany
ByAndreas Önnerfors

chapter 6|20 pages

Denying the geopolitical reality

The case of the German ‘Reich Citizens’
ByFlorian Buchmayr

chapter 7|21 pages

The Fourth Reich in Europe

Conspiracy theories about Germany in the Greek press during the economic crisis
ByAlexianna Tsotsou

chapter 8|25 pages

Populist conspiracy rhetoric and arguments on EU immigration

An exploratory analysis of pro-Brexit newspapers
ByIrina Diana Mădroane

chapter 9|22 pages

The eternal George Soros

The rise of an antisemitic and Islamophobic conspiracy theory
ByArmin Langer

chapter 10|29 pages

EU-related conspiracy theories in the Western Balkans

Gravitating between rejecting and embracing Europe through Eurovilification and Eurofundamentalism
ByBlanuša Nebojša, Denkovski Ognjan, Fidanovski Kristijan, Gjoneska Biljana

chapter 11|17 pages

The Brussels conspiracy

Narratives of EU-related conspiracy theories in pro-Kremlin Media
ByJakov Bojovic

chapter 12|22 pages

A culture of fear

The decline of Europe in Russian political imagination
ByHolger Mölder

chapter 13|12 pages

Unlocking the ‘black box’ of conspiracy theories in and about Europe

ByAndreas Önnerfors, André Krouwel