The Great Replacement as Political Myth: Significance, Identity, and Violent Mobilisation in Brenton Tarrant’s Manifesto
The Great Replacement as Political Myth: Significance, Identity, and Violent Mobilisation in Brenton Tarrant’s Manifesto
Xander Kirke School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKXander Kirke is an Assistant Professor in International Relations and Politics at Northumbria University. His research focuses on the role of political myths and ontological security in terrorism, extremism, and radicalisation. Using insights from existentialist and phenomenological philosophy, he has examined how political myths are deployed in extremist material to provide potential recruits with a sense of significance and thereby encourage violence. His published work includes analysis of political myth in the online al-Qaeda magazine Inspire (International Political Sociology, 2015) and, with Brent Steele, a theoretical development of the relationship between ontological security and myth (Review of International Studies, 2023). With Russell Foster, he has also examined radical right attempts to appeal to the British LGBTQ+ community through what they term “alter-progressivism,” demonstrating the rhetorical flexibility of radical right narratives (British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 2022). He has several ongoing projects investigating the radical right, political myth, and ontological security, with an array of case studies.