THOUGHTS ON THE STATE OF THE RIGHT

by James Lawrence

There’s no sense in mincing words anymore: the Alt-Right has hit a wall, and is faced with the hard task of pulling back and searching for a new course. The enemy media are (prematurely) claiming victory. Many progressives are hastening to vindicate the ‘antifa’ domestic terrorist movement, discarding the pretence that liberal misgivings about organised political violence hinge on anything more than crass utilitarianism.

My purpose here is to offer some thoughts on what has happened and how our side can hope to recover its ground. I do not wish to exaggerate the present difficulties, nor blame people in the Alt-Right for suffering a form of outsourced government repression. However, repression by those in power is a constant for us; what has changed is the effectiveness of this repression, which used to meet with a fluid, agile and durable target, and now increasingly enjoys a sluggish, clumsy and brittle one. One major reason for this is that prominent figures in the Alt-Right, protected by a widespread culture of hooting down internal dissent, took strategic and aesthetic decisions that have ended up transforming an antifragile movement into a destructible one.

DABIQ: INTERVIEW WITH A CAPTURED MOSSAD AGENT

Whatever else it is, ISIS is the perfect manifestation of the Postmodern condition of contemporary warfare—sometimes referred to as Fourth Generation Warfare. 

Involved in what seems like an extremely "asymmetrical conflict," they have nevertheless developed a sophisticated system of fighting and proselytising that has allowed them to carve out an enclave based on the alienated Sunni Arab populations of the former Baathist states of Iraq and Syria. 

Perhaps the most Postmodern thing about ISIS is the element of larping or cosplay that seems to pervade the movement—an arcane insistence on roles taken from a fictional book (The Koran), combined with a tech savvy approach that riffs on the alienation, detachment, and cultural divisions created by Western Liberalism. Another Postmodern aspect is the doubt surrounding its true identity and motivations, giving it something of the nature of a holographic simulacra.

Much of this is evident in their rather well-produced English magazine DABIQ. The latest issue (dated 1436 in the Islamic calendar) seems to address allegations that the movement is little more than a CIA or Mossad front by running an interview with a captured Mossad spy referred to here as "Murtadd" (apostate), who, of course, in the Post-modernist nature of things might just be a stooge for higher up Mossad plants. But make your own mind up.

DONBAS AND DUMBER

Badass in the Donbas: one of your buttons has just been pushed.

by Colin Liddell

America's "Shit Happens" Foreign Policy adopted by the 'Solaris State'

When the present problems between Russia and the West, centring on the Ukraine, first started to come to prominence earlier this year, the first thing I noticed was the increasing partisan pitch and self-delusion among all parties concerned.

The "pro-democracy" advocates had their KoolAid poured fresh from cartons courtesy of Kolor-Яevolutions-Я-Us, the Ukrainians Nats were all dewy-eyed about some alternative universe where "Great Ukraine" had always existed, and the more extreme Duginists had their Polandball-like doctrine "because Octopus" and Manichean intolerance for all who would not prostrate themselves before Putin the Great.

ARE MASS MOVEMENTS OBSOLETE?

by Siryako Akda

If the likes of John Robb, Martin Van Creveld and William S. Lind are correct about their predictions about 4th Generation Warfare and the declining fortunes of the nation state then it’s only a matter of time before modern mass society will undergo certain changes as well. Should their predictions come true, then, it's important to consider how such changes might affect existing perceptions about politics and power.

Among the most important of these perceptions, I think, is how people look at mass movements as instruments of political and social change. Mass movements are one of the most defining characteristics of modernity, liberal democracy, and egalitarianism.

MANDATE OF THE HEAVENS

by Siryako Akda

The extension of China’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) recently generated a lot of not so subtle butthurt in regional geopolitics here in Asia, so it is prudent to examine this particular issue within a broader context.