I am the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF Professor of International Affairs and a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia. I was born in the Netherlands, where I received my MA and PhD at Leiden University. Having held tenure-related positions at Central European University (Budapest, Hungary), the University of Edinburgh (UK), and the University of Antwerp (Belgium), I moved to the US in 2008, where I have been a Visiting Professor at the University of Oregon (2008-9), a Visiting Fellow at the University of Notre Dame (2009-10), and Nancy Schaenen Visiting Scholar (2010-11) and Hampton and Esther Boswell Distinguished University Professor of Political Science (2011-12) at DePauw University.

My primary research agenda is build around the crucial question: How can liberal democracies defend themselves against extremist challenges without undermining their own core values? Building upon an earlier developed typology of extremist challenges to liberal democracy, which distinguishes between the aims and means of the challengers, I aim to answer this question from both an empirical and normative perspective, looking for as well as developing 'best practices.'

My work is primarily conceptual and empirical in nature. After an initial focus on Western Europe, I have expanded my primary focus to both Eastern and Western Europe and developed a secondary interest in North and South America as well as Israel. The bulk of my research has been within the field of extremism and democracy, particularly populist radical right parties. Secondary interests include civil society, conceptualization, democracy and democratization, Euroskepticism, political parties, political ideologies, and social movements.

I am currently working (on and off) on a diverse set of research projects.

FAR RIGHT POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

I am currently finishing a book that is based on a collaborative research project on the youth branches of right-wing populist parties in Europe. To be written with Ann-Cathrine Jungar, Anders Jupskås, and Duncan McDonnell, this book will offer the first comparative study of youth branches of right-wing populist parties in Europe, focusing on the motivations of leaders and members alike, on the relationship between youth branch and mother party, and international connections between youth branches. It will draw on extensive original research, including interviews with (former) leaders of right-wing populist youth parties as well as surveys of members of party youth branches.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF EUROPEAN POLITICS

Together with Tarik Abou-chadi, I am currently writing a popular academic book on the transformation(s) of European politics for Hurst Publishers. It focuses primarily on European politics in the 21st century, but looks at both long-term and short-term factor of political change. Aimed at a broader audience, as well as scholars of European politics, the book argues that European politics is fundamentally changing and that these changes are most likely long-term. To ensure that elite political opportunism and mass political dissatisfaction do not grow even further, we have to revise our expectations and evaluations and find more productive ways to deal with the fundamentally transformed political world. The book is a long term project and could take until 2025 or later.

SOCCER AND POLITICS

As a side project, I am working on the intersection between soccer (football) and politics, in particular on the relationships between (professional) soccer, civil society, and liberal democracy. I am also interested in the question whether, and in what ways, "modern football" is less democratic than "historical soccer". Finally, I have a specific interest in clubs that have a strong association with a certain politics, like Beitar Jerusalem or Real Madrid (far right) or Bohemian FC and St. Pauli (far left), and how real these associations are at the level of the clubs, players, and fans.

DEFENDING DEMOCRACY?

This ongoing project critically analyzes how western democracies deal with (perceived) political threats and assesses whether the cure (state repression) is better or worse than the disease (the threat). I am focusing on state responses in North America and Europe to a broad range of (perceived) threats, including so-called anti-globalization movements, eco-terrorism, far right parties, and international terrorism.

OI! THE POLITICS

My side project, on which I work much less than I would want to, is a monograph that analyzes the main political positions expressed in Oi! music. The book will focus mainly on the political views of British Oi acts in the explosive period of the late 1970s and 1980s with political events like the miners strike and Margaret Thatcher's "iron rule".

PODCAST: RADIKAAL

Between June 2020 and December 2022, I had a (biweekly) podcast, called RADIKAAL (Dutch for Radical), in which I discussed the radical aspects of music, politics, and sports. In each show I interviewed one expert for about 20-30 minutes on a specific topic, ranging from British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg on music to politics to Philippine political scientist Nicole Curato on Rodrigo Duterte or Canadian activist-writer Shireen Ahmed on athlete activism. While I no longer make the podcast, the ca. 75 episodes are still available at: www.radikaalpodcast.com.