The authors argue that the potential threat of a resurgence of "fascism" has been consistently exaggerated from 1945 until present day; that the ongoing lack of conceptual and definitional clarity with respect to terms like "fascism," the "radical right," the "alt right," "white supremacism," "populism," "racism," etc., has enabled ill-informed or dishonest commentators to distort their meaning and abusively misapply those labels so as to delegitimize their political opponents; and that the political and economic elites in charge of contemporary Western societies are now deliberately exaggerating and exploiting the threat posed by the domestic radical right in order to facilitate vilifying, harassing, de-platforming, censoring, "canceling," and repressing disgruntled citizens (no matter where they may lie along the political spectrum) who openly criticize and vigorously oppose their agendas. The authors also advocate the use of well-established scholarly methods for carrying out research on the right and provide precise definitions of various terms in order to facilitate the development of more accurate categorizations.

Dr. Jeffrey M. Bale is emeritus professor in the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies (NPTS) Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS).

Dr. Tamir Bar-On is professor-researcher in the School of Social Sciences and Government, Tecnológico de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education).

Introduction: Instigating Brown Scares and Moral Panics about the Radical Right and Fascism

Chapter 1: Biases and Double Standards in Assessing the Role and Impact of Ideologies

Chapter 2: Towards an Academic Consensus about the Radical Right and Fascism?

Chapter 3: The Islamic Radical Right (Islamism) is a Greater Threat to Democracy and Security than Fascism

Chapter 4: The Never-Ending Brown Scare since 1945Is Fascism Really On the March?

Chapter 5: Some Suggestions for Improving Analyses of the Radical Right