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<html><body><div>Sonia Sarkar is an India-based journalist.The fast growing online ecosystem of the far-right has created a transnational politics of hatred and division to block democratic processes. The role of think tanks in strengthening the far-right globally, however, remains underexplored.A new study by the U.S.-based non-profit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) shows there is deep influence by the major far-right think tanks in America on the administration of President Donald Trump. These think tanks have also been mobilizing the far-right globally through conferences such as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) to propagate a range of beliefs that are racist, sexist, anti-immigrant and hostile toward LGBTQ+ communities.Between 2000 and 2024, the far-right formed a global network of 3,000 speakers from 1,800 groups, hosting 302 conferences across 35 countries, according to a recent report by Thomas Greven, an adjunct professor of political science at the John F. Kennedy Institute For North American Studies at FU Berlin. CPAC, once U.S.-focused, expanded internationally with a 2022 event in Budapest, while NatCon held events in London and Rome in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Both remain key hubs for a growing transnational movement of right-wing intellectuals.In "World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and Global Order," a book published last year, the authors describe the conferences by far-right think tanks as "contact zones" or "interstitial spaces" that span the "national-international divide and bring together and constitute a range of forces whose power is magnified through their reverberations with each other."These conferences are "deliberate vehicles," according to a separate report by two authors of the book, for creating cross-border conservative alliances to challenge liberal progressivism domestically and internationally.Although nationalism -- or "our country first" -- divides the far-right, it is the same reason that unites them. German author Thomas Greven states that the far-right is tasked with building the narrative and organizational foundations of an "internationalist nationalism," enabling a global movement to develop even in the absence of central leadership.The other unifying force for the far-right is shared hostility toward the "global liberal elite" and its support for immigration, free trade, human rights, and equality. Transnational cooperation is seen as essential by the far-right to challenge this perceived dominance of the global liberal elite and promote an illiberal world order marked by fierce anti-immigrant sentiment, stronger demands for national sovereignty and rejection of liberal democratic norms.As far-right ideology has moved from the margins to the mainstream globally, think tanks play a key role by steering public discourse, and advancing right-wing cultural dominance, as Samuel Salzborn explains in "Renaissance of the New Right in Germany? A Discussion of New Right Elements in German Right-wing Extremism Today," highlighting their strategic effort to create space for intellectual metapolitics. 
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 President Donald Trump, right, listens as Stephen Moore, of the Heritage Foundation, speaks about the economy in the Oval Office of the White House on Aug. 7, in Washington.



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The influential American conservative think tanks backing Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) project have been using Euro-skepticism and an uncompromising stand on the "national sovereignty" of European far-right parties -- including France's National Rally, Hungary's ruling Fidesz party, Spain's Vox party and the Netherlands' Party for Freedom -- to unite against "globalist institutions" and a desire for "sovereign cooperation" over centralized governance.In May, the Heritage Foundation, the influential American conservative think tank that prepared a radical unofficial blueprint for Trump's second term in office titled Project 2025, organised a closed door political reception with members of the European far-right to discuss the future of conservatism in France and the West.For the past two years, the U.S.-based Heartland Institute has collaborated with climate-sceptic members of the European Parliament from Poland, Hungary and Austria to help coordinate campaigns against environmental laws. At the launch of its European base in London, Nigel Farage, the leader of far-right British party Reform UK, was a featured guest.The American think tanks are also working closely with the independent legal think tank Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture in Poland, and educational institution and the research center Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest, both of which believe in eliminating the European Commission and reframing Europe as a consortium of sovereign, competitive states.At a time when Europe has expressed its concerns over Trump's anti-liberal ways of functioning and his remarks about the U.S. reclaiming control of the Panama Canal and possibly acquiring Greenland, his forging of alliances with the European far-right through think tanks could result in a further breaking of already fractured European unity.American think tanks are also forming alliances with the Asia's right-wing. Charlie Kirk, the founder of think tank Turning Point USA, which is part of Trump's coterie, has been invited to speak at a conference organized by Japan's right-wing Sanseito party in Tokyo on Sept. 7.Last year, Ram Madhav and Swapan Dasgupta -- intellectuals representing India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent body, the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) -- attended Natcon. They spoke about India's vision in building a consensus for world conservatism.In addition to the Heritage Foundation, American think tanks propagating Trump's MAGA project including the American Conservative Union, America First Policy Institute, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Center for Immigration Studies, have also been circulating anti-China rhetoric. They advocate for enhanced scrutiny of Chinese foreign students on U.S. campuses, increased monitoring activities of pro-Beijing Chinese diaspora voices and groups against legislation to block Beijing's alleged strategic land grabs in the country and controlling Chinese migration to the US. These think tanks advocate for a more confrontational approach to China in areas like trade, technology and international relations.China also remains a topic of critical discussion in American right-wing universities -- another part of the larger global far-right intellectual ecosystem.Last year, another GPAHE study revealed that a larger network of American and European educational institutions, mostly private, host far-right thinkers, organize major conferences and finance far-right events. In some places, they also function as tools for state propaganda, producing regime-aligned content and training bureaucrats and teachers -- many of whom are steered toward these institutions by government policy. Additionally, these universities frequently work in close partnership with far-right political figures, reinforcing their ideological influence and expanding their networks.In turn, the American think tanks mobilize attacks against public institutions and catalyze the privatization of education.Countering far-right discourse on social media could still be possible to a certain extent if tech companies are willing not to line up behind the American far-right, and regularly take down hateful content. But to combat the far-right intellectual discourse, liberal thinkers, civil society and centrist political parties must focus on strengthening liberal democracy and reclaiming the political agenda.
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