Georg Löfflmann’s research while affiliated with Queen Mary University of London and other places

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Publications (17)


The Politics of Antagonism: Populist Security Narratives and the Remaking of Political Identity
  • Book

January 2024

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43 Reads

Georg Löfflmann

Populist Humiliation Narratives and the Mobilization of Resistance

November 2023

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30 Reads

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1 Citation

This chapter examines how communicative practices, emotion, and everyday experiences of insecurity interlink in processes of populist political mobilization. Combining insights from international security studies, political psychology, and populism research, it demonstrates how populist political agents from the right of the political spectrum have constructed a powerful security imaginary around the loss of past national greatness, which creates affinities with the experiences of those who feel disempowered. As we show, populist humiliation narratives stoke anxieties over the decline of the ‘true’ people in the present with the promise of reversal and redemption to mobilize popular resistance against ‘politics as usual’. They are a key discursive mechanism that helps turn abstract notions of enmity into politically consequential sentiments of loss, betrayal, and oppression. Humiliation binds together an ostensibly conflicting sense of national greatness and victimhood to achieve an emotive response that enables a radical departure from established domestic and international policy norms and problematizes policy choices centred on collaboration, dialogue, and peaceful conflict resolution.


Introduction: Populism, Political Communication and Performative Leadership in International Politics
  • Chapter
  • Full-text available

November 2023

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193 Reads

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3 Citations

Who speaks for ‘the people’? Populists across the globe have mobilised this question to attack liberal institutions, political opponents, and the democratic process itself, communicating a political reality in which globalist elites have allegedly betrayed the sovereign will of the popular community. The recent ‘surge’ (Mudde, 2016) or ‘wave’ (Aslanidis, 2016) of populism around the world has encompassed electorally successful right-wing populist leaders in the Northern Hemisphere such as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Marine Le Pen, Jaroslav Kaczynski, Recyp Erdogan, and Victor Orbán, who have advanced nationalist, exclusionary, protectionist and Eurosceptic political agendas. In parallel, left-wing populists in Greece, Spain and Bolivia have attracted voters disillusioned with neoliberal economic policies and existing representational mechanisms of liberal democracy with anti-elitist and anti-globalist platforms. In the Southern Hemisphere, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro and Yoweri Museveni are oft-cited examples of contemporary populist leaders who have enjoyed continued electoral success with agendas promoting ethnocultural and religious-Nationalist slogans in post-colonial contexts. Prior analyses of these populists’ electoral success and political leadership have usually focused on the ideas, ideologies and strategies populism encompasses, especially in the domestic political arena.

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The Trump Shock: Populism and Changing Narratives of US Foreign Policy

May 2023

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84 Reads

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3 Citations

During his inaugural address on January 20, 2021, Joe Biden called on Americans to end their ‘un-civil war’ and refrain from treating political opponents as mortal enemies (White House, 2021). Biden vowed to defend democracy and the US Constitution and stressed the vital importance of facts and truth for the functioning of a liberal, open, and democratic society. Without ever naming his predecessor outright, Biden’s speech repudiated decisively the nationalist populism of Donald Trump, who had employed a divisive rhetoric of fear, anxiety, and resentment throughout his time in office; a strategy of narrative disruption and antagonistic mobilization for domestic political gain, culminating in the January 6 Capitol riot in Washington DC, where, instigated by Trump, a violent mob attempted to overturn the certification of the presidential election by force (Homolar & Löfflmann, 2021). Some of the first executive orders Biden signed in office saw the United States re-join the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO), symbolically ending the era of America First in US foreign policy. But the forces of nationalist populism and nativism did not disappear with Donald Trump’s exit from the White House, and his political influence survived his banning from the social media platforms Twitter and Facebook. The United States of America remained a deeply polarized nation, while Trump’s renewed bid for the presidency in 2024 remained a realistic, even probable proposition (Dimock, 2021). In any case, the 74 million Americans that voted for Trump in 2020 all but guaranteed that nationalist populism would continue to dominate the Republican Party and the American right at large. This enduring quality of populism in American politics challenges the structural integrity of liberal democracy and its core institutions, casting serious doubts over the future role of the United States in the international system.


The Bush Doctrine redux: changes and continuities in American grand strategy since ‘9/11’

March 2023

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195 Reads

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4 Citations

International Politics

This article examines the ideational dimension and political performance of American grand strategy since ‘9/11’ and explores to what extent the strategic assumptions, ideological dispositions, and security practices of the Bush Doctrine have endured since the 2001 terrorist attacks. It advances a constructivist understanding of American grand strategy as a nexus of national identity discourses and security practices. The article will first explore the significance of American exceptionalism in the ideational dimension of the Bush Doctrine and its practical impact in the pursuit of US national security. The article will then focus on the Obama Doctrine, arguing that its embrace of cooperative engagement and multilateralism represented a limited strategic course correction within the paradigm of liberal hegemony. Finally, the article will contrast grand strategy discourses under Bush and Donald Trump, exploring their shared foundations in Jacksonian nationalism and unilateralism that demonstrate the continued relevance of Bush’s strategic vision of US primacy.


Weaponizing Masculinity: Populism and Gendered Stories of Victimhood

November 2022

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259 Reads

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3 Citations

Journal for the Study of Radicalism

This article makes the case for seeing hypermasculine posturing and appealing to male anxieties as integral to the wider purchase of nationalist populist narratives that fuel anti-democratic sentiments and demand a radical transformation of politics and society. It focuses on how populist rhetoric from—and to—the right of the political spectrum relies on highly gendered scripts to build and mobilize political support by making abstract notions of insecurity feelable as a crisis and betrayal of manhood. Speaking to a growing body of literature discussing gender and populism, the article demonstrates that populist masculine rhetoric is more than simply a brawny display of “bad manners.” Alongside ethnicity and nationality, it forms the core of the radicalizing playbook that helps turning individual grievances over frustrated desires and unmet expectations into a call to arms for political agents who promise alleviation and transformative change.



Introduction to special issue: The study of populism in international relations

June 2022

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76 Reads

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27 Citations

British Journal of Politics & International Relations

The rise of nationalist populism, its challenge to representative democracy and the populist impact on the liberal international order have emerged as one of the most significant phenomena in international politics in recent years. This special issue brings together a group of researchers from a wide range of theoretical, disciplinary and epistemological backgrounds, including political science, populism studies, foreign policy analysis and critical security studies, to examine the international dimension of populism and the practical impact of populism on foreign policy and international security. Empirically and conceptually, it presents audiences in political science, international relations and related disciplines with a timely review of the scope of research on populism in international relations. Our specific aim is to explore and evaluate what challenges a populist mobilisation of anti-elitism and anti-globalism presents to both the contemporary study of international politics, and the structure of the international system and key actors within it.


‘Enemies of the people’: Donald Trump and the security imaginary of America First

October 2021

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210 Reads

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33 Citations

British Journal of Politics & International Relations

The discursive domain of (in)security is integral to nationalist populism, as documented in the political rhetoric of Donald Trump. This article combines insights from political psychology on blame attribution with scholarship in International Relations on security narratives to show how the reframing of national identity through a populist security imaginary elevated internal ‘enemies of the people’ to an ontological status of equal, or even superior standing to that of external threats to national security. Portraying internal and external Others as equally existential threats endangering the ‘real’ United States informed both foreign policy choices and mobilised voters through an affective persuasion of audiences, actively dividing society for political gain. Populist appeals to resentment, fear, and anxiety constituted a shared affective space between Trump and his followers that provided a source of mutual ontological reassurance and the legitimation of America First measures from immigration restrictions to trade protectionism and a Jacksonian foreign policy.


Populism and the Affective Politics of Humiliation Narratives

March 2021

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343 Reads

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81 Citations

Global Studies Quarterly

This article examines how communicative practices, emotion, and everyday experiences of insecurity interlink in processes of populist political mobilization. Combining insights from international security studies, political psychology, and populism research, it demonstrates how populist political agents from the right of the political spectrum have constructed a powerful security imaginary around the loss of past national greatness that creates affinities with the experiences of those who feel disempowered and ties existential anxieties to concerns with immigration, globalization, and integration. As we show, within the populist security imaginary, humiliation is the key discursive mechanism that helps turn abstract notions of enmity into politically consequential affective narratives of loss, betrayal, and oppression. Humiliation binds together an ostensibly conflicting sense of national greatness and victimhood to achieve an emotive response that enables a radical departure from established domestic and international policy norms and problematizes policy choices centered on collaboration, dialogue, and peaceful conflict resolution. Cet article examine la mesure dans laquelle les pratiques de communication, l’émotion et les expériences quotidiennes d'insécurité sont liées aux processus de mobilisation politique des populistes. Il allie des renseignements issus d’études internationales sur la sécurité, de la psychologie politique et de recherches sur le populisme pour montrer la manière dont les agents politiques populistes de droite ont construit un puissant imaginaire de la sécurité autour de la perte de la grandeur nationale passée. Cet imaginaire crée des affinités avec les expériences des personnes qui se sentent mises à l’écart et associe les anxiétés existentielles à des préoccupations liées à l'immigration, à la mondialisation et à l'intégration. Comme nous le montrons, dans l'imaginaire populiste de la sécurité, l'humiliation est le mécanisme discursif clé qui permet de transformer des notions abstraites d'inimitié en récits de perte, de trahison et d'oppression qui font appel à l'affectif et ont des conséquences politiques. Cette humiliation associe deux sentiments ostensiblement contradictoires, celui de grandeur nationale et celui d’être victime, qui amènent à une réaction émotive conduisant à s’éloigner radicalement des normes politiques nationales et internationales établies tout en trouvant problématiques les choix politiques centrés sur la collaboration, le dialogue et la résolution pacifique des conflits. Este artículo investiga de qué manera las prácticas comunicativas, las emociones y las experiencias cotidianas de inseguridad se conectan con los procesos de movilizaciones políticas populistas. Combinando los conocimientos de los estudios de seguridad internacional, la psicología política y la investigación del populismo, demuestra cómo los agentes políticos populistas de la derecha del espectro político han construido un imaginario de seguridad poderoso en torno a la pérdida de la grandeza nacional pasada, el cual crea afinidad con las experiencias de aquellas personas que sienten que carecen de poder y relaciona las ansiedades existenciales con las preocupaciones por la inmigración, la globalización y la integración. Tal como lo presentamos, dentro del imaginario de seguridad populista, la humillación es el mecanismo discursivo clave que ayuda a convertir las nociones abstractas de la enemistad en discursos afectivos de derrotas, traiciones y opresiones que son relevantes en términos políticos. La humillación une un sentido ostensiblemente opuesto de grandeza nacional y victimismo para lograr una respuesta emotiva que permita la divergencia radical de las normas políticas nacionales e internacionales establecidas y problematiza las elecciones políticas centradas en la colaboración, el diálogo y la resolución pacífica de conflictos.


Citations (14)


... Some studies have made first efforts at theorizing the impact of populism on conflict behavior, on the readiness to contribute to global governance, or on the processes of foreign policy decision making (Chryssogelos, 2017;Plagemann and Destradi, 2019;Wajner, 2021; see also ; and the recent edited volume by Giurlando & Wajner, 2023). Others have addressed issues like specific populist leaders' foreign policy role conceptions (Wehner & Thies, 2020) or their rhetoric and discourse on international matters (Lacatus et al., 2023; Cadier & Szulecki, 2020). Moreover, some studies have delved deeper into populists' attitudes towards specific actors or issues in international politics, including their skepticism of international courts and multilateralism (Voeten, 2020(Voeten, , 2021Copelovitch & Pevehouse, 2019) or their approach to international cooperation in the COVID-19 pandemic (Pevehouse, 2020). ...

Reference:

Populism and the liberal international order: An analysis of UN voting patterns
Introduction: Populism, Political Communication and Performative Leadership in International Politics

... Shaming has a critical role in public humiliation and critique of adversaries (Jacobs et al., 2020), and shame-labelling, as well as language that dismisses 'elites' (transport planners, politicians) is systemdelegitimizing, contributing to perceptions of democracy deficit (McCoy & Somer, 2019;Tworzecki, 2019). Public humiliation also represents a departure from established policy norms, again complicating the finding of a consensus based on collaboration and dialogue (Homolar & Löfflmann, 2023). Humorin this study also involving ridiculeis a means of cultivating anger and polarization, while reinforcing a sense of moral superiority and divisiveness (Sakki & Martikainen, 2021). ...

Populist Humiliation Narratives and the Mobilization of Resistance
  • Citing Chapter
  • November 2023

... The common understanding was that the US had to be militarily preponderant and that Washington should seek to integrate other states into US-designed institutions such as NATO, the UN, and the free market system under the auspices of the WTO (Porter, 2018, p. 9). After the end of the Cold War, both Republican and Democratic administrations continued to share this strategic understanding, which was further buttressed by the myth of American exceptionalism and by the common understanding of the need for American superiority, technologically and militarily (Bryan & Tama, 2022;Löfflmann, 2023). ...

The Bush Doctrine redux: changes and continuities in American grand strategy since ‘9/11’

International Politics

... Although the interest in examining gender narratives within right-wing populist discourse is a recent phenomenon, a growing body of literature highlights how this discourse is specifically aimed at stoking men's status anxieties. More specifically, right-wing populism is using gender rhetoric to encourage men's resentment and turn frustrated desires and unmet expectations into collective actions in support of policies that promise to alleviate anxieties and realize a complete social transformation (Pease, 2019;Löffler et al, 2020;Hakola et al, 2021;Kaul, 2021;Homolar and Löfflmann, 2022). Part of this strategy involves reinstating humiliation as the primary discursive mechanism to evoke an emotional response capable of mobilizing the electorate (Homolar and Löfflmann, 2021). ...

Weaponizing Masculinity
  • Citing Article
  • July 2022

Journal for the Study of Radicalism

... aged 59 to 79, at 43% (Ipsos, 2024;Off et al., 2022), who have traditionally been perceived as more conservative on gender issues. Though male victimhood ideologies are not new, they are being increasingly recognized as a key predictor of recent social and political trends, including the proliferation of misogynistic online communities like incels (involuntary celibates), whose misogynistic ideals have often spurred actual violence against women (Ging, 2019;Halpin, 2022;Menzie, 2022), and men's support for populist political candidates or parties (Al-Ghazzi, 2021;Armaly & Enders, 2022;Gerodimos, 2015;Homolar & Löfflmann, 2022;Isom et al., 2022). Despite the growing visibility of male victimhood ideologies and their impact on social and political outcomes, there has been relatively little empirical research on the underlying sources of these ideologies. ...

Weaponizing Masculinity: Populism and Gendered Stories of Victimhood

Journal for the Study of Radicalism

... The origins of populism in Europe can be attributed to various elements, including economic concerns, cultural conflicts, discontent with mainstream politicians, and the imperialistic policies of the EU. The 2008 global financial crisis served as a catalyst, exacerbating pre-existing frustrations and cultivating mistrust with established institutions 27 . Concerns over immigration, identity, and sovereignty have invigorated populist discourses, exploiting anxieties about cultural erosion and loss of authority. ...

Introduction to special issue: The study of populism in international relations
  • Citing Article
  • June 2022

British Journal of Politics & International Relations

... According to Löfflmann (2022), these activities legitimized the creation and sustenance of a conscious trade imbalance. It ranged from immigration restrictions to trade protectionism and the creation of foreign policies referred to as "Jacksonian," in the belief that Americans must remain vigilant and well-armed (either economically or with arms) in a dangerous world. ...

‘Enemies of the people’: Donald Trump and the security imaginary of America First

British Journal of Politics & International Relations

... More specifically, right-wing populism is using gender rhetoric to encourage men's resentment and turn frustrated desires and unmet expectations into collective actions in support of policies that promise to alleviate anxieties and realize a complete social transformation (Pease, 2019;Löffler et al, 2020;Hakola et al, 2021;Kaul, 2021;Homolar and Löfflmann, 2022). Part of this strategy involves reinstating humiliation as the primary discursive mechanism to evoke an emotional response capable of mobilizing the electorate (Homolar and Löfflmann, 2021). Some research has shown that populist actors portray men as victims and neglected in the face of discourses that prioritize other forms of inequality and disadvantage while systematically ignoring the inequalities that have devastated their lives and limited their opportunities (Roose, 2017;Kantola and Lombardo, 2021;Homolar and Löfflmann, 2022). ...

Populism and the Affective Politics of Humiliation Narratives

Global Studies Quarterly

... The Presidency of Barack Obama (2009-2017) emphasized the continuity in its foreign policy priorities from the Bush era (Parmar, 2009, p. 203). The "Obama doctrine" combined the liberal idea of the value of internationalism with conservative realist thinking, resulting in a foreign policy strategy that accommodated engaged multilateralism and military restraint (Löfflmann, 2020). In the 2015 National Security Strategy, President Obama repeated, "strong and sustained American leadership is essential to a rules-based international order….The question is not whether America should lead, but how we lead" (Löfflmann, 2020, p. 592;White House, 2015). ...

From the Obama Doctrine to America First: the erosion of the Washington consensus on grand strategy

International Politics

... Fourth, in light of the currently emerging smartification and digitization of the border (Pötzsch 2015;Löfflmann & Vaughan-Williams 2018;Mau 2022), special attention should be paid to socio-technical imaginations (Jasanoff & Kim 2009;Trauttmansdorff & Felt 2021). Examples include anticipated or announced technological changes and their position within border future imaginations. ...

Vernacular imaginaries of European border security among citizens: From walls to information management
  • Citing Article
  • August 2018

European Journal of International Security