FAULT LINES IN CIVILIZATIONS AND RIGHT WING EXTREMISM: GERMANY’S EXPERIMENT WITH DOMESTIC RESPONSIBILITY VS INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATION

Abstract

The influx of refugees in 2015- an aftermath of the Syrian Civil War, propelled European leadership into a predicament of maintaining a cautious balance between international obligations and domestic responsibilities. While most nations adopted harder migration policies, Germany decided to navigate through such a conundrum by adopting pro-migration policies. However, the simultaneous rise in right wing extremism posed a significant threat to those who were considered to be ‘non-German’. The paper analyses the right wing extremist spectrum in Germany from 2015-2018. The paper further employs The Clash of Civilisations thesis with Populism to explain the upsurge in right wing extremism.