FASCISM, RADICALIZATION, AND WAR, 1914-50s:
OCCUPATION, COUNTERINSURGENCY,
COLLABORATIONISM, CIVIL WAR
Seventh Convention of the
International Association for Comparative Fascist Studies (ComFas)
Barcelona, 28, 29, 30 May 2025
The event was organized by the International Association for Comparative Fascist Studies (COMFAS) in cooperation with Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and GRECS, Grup de Recerca en Guerra, Radicalisme Polític I Conflicte Social
Organizers
Javier Rodrigo, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (coordinator)
David Alegre, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Miguel Alonso, UNED, Madrid
Maximiliano Fuentes, Universitat de Girona
Constantin Iordachi, CEU PU, Vienna, Austria
Aristotle Kallis, Keele University, UK
Francisco Morente, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Giorgia Priorelli, Universitat de Girona
Joan Pubill, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Margalida Roig, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Event Rationale
Despite having grown up as separate academic niches, the history of fascism and war are inextricably linked. Mussolini considered fascism a ‘permanent state of war’. Beyond the metaphor, fascism grew exponentially from the state of exception to the state of war. War created frameworks for political opportunity and radicalization that transformed fascist regimes. Therefore, fascism cannot be understood without war - or rather, without wars: colonial, civil, or occupation wars.
Against this background, the seventh ComFas Convention brought together researchers from different disciplinary fields, geographical areas, and research traditions and engaged them in a scholarly debate on violence within the field of radical right, fascist, and neo-fascist movements and regimes, and the links with war as a pattern for radicalization.
The contributors provided new theoretical, comparative or case-study contributions exploring topics such as:
• Colonial war and fascism
• Social militarism, paramilitarism and radicalization to violence
• Paramilitarism, war discourses and forging radicalized communities
• Gender aspects; explorations of concepts of masculinity and femininity in relation to fascist war cultures
• War and dictatorship
• Fascist warfare: occupation, annihilation, genocide
• Civil war and fascism
• Counterinsurgency and fascism
• Collaborationism and fascism
• Neofascism, radicalization and war
The Seventh Sixth Convention of the International Association for Comparative Fascist Studies (COMFAS) brought these research streams together in order to foster synergies and crossfertilization.
See the Convention Program here: COMFAS VII - Program .