Russia and the Western Far Right: Tango Noir (pre-order)

My forthcoming book Russia and the Western Far Right: Tango Noir is now available for pre-order via Routledge or via several Amazon websites: France, Italy, Spain, UK, Canada, Japan, US, India.

Description:

The growing influence on the Western far right has been much discussed in the media recently. This book is the first detailed inquiry into what has been a neglected but critically important trend: the growing links between Russian actors and Western far right activists, publicists, ideologues, and politicians. The author uses a range of sources including interviews, video footage, leaked communications, official statements and press coverage in order to discuss both historical and contemporary Russia in terms of its relationship with the Western far right.

Initial contacts between Russian political actors and Western far right activists were established in the early 1990s, but these contacts were low profile. As Moscow has become more anti-Western, these contacts have become more intense and have operated at a higher level. The book shows that the Russian establishment was first interested in using the Western far right to legitimise Moscow’s politics and actions both domestically and internationally, but more recently Moscow has begun to support particular far right political forces to gain leverage on European politics and undermine the liberal-democratic consensus in the West.

Contributing to ongoing scholarly debates about Russia’s role in the world, its strategies aimed at securing legitimation of Putin’s regime both internationally and domestically, modern information warfare and propaganda, far right politics and activism in the West, this book draws on theories and methods from history, political science, area studies, and media studies and will be of interest to students, scholars, activists and practitioners in these areas.

What lessons can European leaders learn from Trump’s victory?

As the news about the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections have shocked many in Europe, it is high time for European leaders to learn lessons from the outcome of these elections and – to quote Winston Churchill – not let a good crisis go to waste.

The US presidential electoral campaign was characterised by the “Europeanisation” of the American politics – something that never happened before. Discarding some obvious differences between the American and European political domains, Bernie Sanders appeared a typical European social democrat, Hillary Clinton – a European pro-establishment centrist, and Donald Trump – a European anti-establishment radical right-wing populist. Trump’s rhetoric during the campaign was notorious for anti-immigrant and racist statements, so it was only natural that European right-wing politicians such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the former leader of Britain’s UKIP Nigel Farage or the president of Front National Marine Le Pen overwhelmingly supported Trump during his campaign.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky's contacts with the European far right in the Yeltsin era

[This post is part of my ongoing research on the cooperation between post-Soviet Russia and the European/American far right. The fully referenced version of this post will appear in a published work, so all the links/footnotes/endnotes are deliberately omitted.]

In the Yeltsin era, the contacts between Russian politicians and the European/American far right were scarce. One could focus on four major areas of these contacts established by (1) Aleksandr Dugin, (2) Sergey Glazyev, (3) Pavel Tulaev, and (4) Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the misleadingly named far right Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) tried to forge relationships with European radical right-wing parties already in the early 1990s. Eduard Limonov of the National-Bolshevik Party, while living in France, introduced Zhirinovsky, in autumn 1992, to Jean-Marie Le Pen, contemporary leader of the Front National (FN). Their meeting turned out to be beneficial to Zhirinovsky, as later the FN “provided logistical support [to the LDPR], including computers and fax machines, in short supply in Moscow at that time”.

Already during his first meeting with Le Pen, Zhirinovsky suggested establishing the International Centre of Right-wing Parties in Moscow and invited Le Pen to Russia’s capital. Le Pen, according to Limonov, “confined himself to commending the project”. In 1996, when Le Pen did eventually visit Moscow, Zhirinovsky spoke of founding a pan-European far right alliance again, under the name “Union of Right-wing Forces of Europe”. At that time this project was not implemented, but Zhirinovsky revived – and, to some extent, materialised – this idea after Vladimir Putin became Russian president.

Jean-Marie Le Pen and Vladimir Zhirinovsky in Moscow, 1996

Zhirinovsky’s another major foreign contact in the Yeltsin era was the far right Deutsche Volksunion (German People’s Union, DVU) led by now late Gerhard Frey, “the multi-millionaire media czar” who owned and published several newspapers, as well as being the main sponsor of his party. As early as 1992, Zhirinovsky and Frey spoke at each other’s party conventions. Moreover, following the staggering victory in the 1993 parliamentary elections – the LDPR obtained 22.92% of the votes – Zhirinovsky met with Frey again in Munich on his way to Austria where the leader of the LDPR spent a few days in the company of Edwin Neuwirth, “a local industrialist, Holocaust denier and proud former member of the Waffen SS”. In 1994, the LDPR and DVU signed a friendship accord.

According to Russian journalist Leonid Mlechin who spoke to one of the heads of the anti-extremist department of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Frey provided financial support to the LDPR “in exchange for the promise to return the Kaliningrad oblast to Germany after Zhirinovsky became president of Russia”. Frey himself wrote that “if Mr. Zhirinovsky came to power in Russia he would negotiate with Germany about the return of the lost province of East Prussia”. Indeed, in his book The Last Thrust to the South, Zhirinovsky suggested restoring Germany to its 1937 borders. Zhirinovsky’s readiness to part with the Kaliningrad oblast seemed important to the DVU that insisted that Pomerania, Silesia and East Prussia be returned to Germany.

Vladimir Zhironovsky and Gerhard Frey in Munich, 1993

It seems viable to suggest that Zhirinovsky’s foreign relationships were not exclusively ideological, but also had a considerable element of financial interests. For example, in 1994, German authorities investigated whether Zhirinovsky was financed by the money of the defunct East German regime through his German contact Werner Girke who handled foreign financial holdings for the East German communists and was believed to have helped them covertly invest those funds in Western companies. In 1996, Italian police suspected Zhirinovsky of the involvement in the trade of nuclear materials that also involved Licio Gelli, a fascist activist since the 1930s and Grand Master of the Masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2).

Zhirinovsky’s other far right contacts in the Yeltsin era included Zmago Jelinčič, the leader of the Slovenska Nacionalna Stranka (Slovenian National Party), and Vojislav Šešelj, the founder and leader of the Srpska Radikalna Stranka (Serbian Radical Party). Furthermore, in 1997, Zhirinovsky supported the separatist move of Umberto Bossi’s Lega Nord (Northern League) that attempted to create a state called “Padania” in Northern Italy. Bossi was excited about the support for his secessionist project received from “the third political force of the Russian parliament”, while Zhirinovsky took part in the opening sitting of the Padanian “parliament” and stated that, were he Russian president, he would recognise the independence of Padania.

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French Eurasianists join (pro-)Russian extremists in Eastern Ukraine

An Internet TV channel of (pro-)Russian extremists has published a video featuring four Frenchmen who came to Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine to fight against Ukrainian forces. They do not say their names and think that France will not know of their participation in the terrorist activities in Ukraine. Now it's time to reveal some of their secrets.

(from left to right) Mickael Takahashi, Guillaume "Lenormand" Cuvelier, Nikola Perovic, Victor-Alfonso Lenta in Donetsk, August 2014

(from left to right) Victor-Alfonso Lenta, Mickael Takahashi, Guillaume "Lenormand" Cuvelier, Nikola Perovic in Donetsk, August 2014

This video and other evidence I have gathered suggest that Guillaume "Lenormand" Cuvelier, Nikola Perovic and Mickael Takahashi first came to Moscow in the second half of June where they met Russian citizen Mikhail Polynkov.* The latter is engaged in assisting international extremists to get to Eastern Ukraine.

Look far right, and look right again

My new article for openDemocracy:

Look far right, and look right again

The Russian political establishment thinks that Ukrainians are 'traitors to Orthodox civilisation and Russian unity.’ But it is not only Putin’s Russia that is behind the challenge to democracy in Ukraine.

Putyin hasznos idiótái és Európa kis Ribbentropjai

Putyin hasznos idiótái és Európa kis Ribbentropjai
Anton Shekhovtsov

Vita: Féljünk a putyini Oroszországtól?

A 2014 novemberében kezdődött ukrán EU-párti tüntetések, amelyek végül Viktor Janukovics bukásához vezettek, eléggé réijesztettek Putyinra, akinek két oka is lehet a félelemre.

Először is attól tarthat, hogy az ukrán tüntetések sikere átterjedhet Oroszországra, és ott is erős utcai ellenállás szerveződhet vele szemben, elvégre 2012-ben már voltak jelentős tüntetések ellene.

Másodsorban az EU-val kötött ukrán megállapodás, amely a kijevi tüntetések fő oka volt, végképp kihúzhatja Ukrajnát az orosz érdekszférából. Sőt, Ukrajna ezek után akar a NATO-tagságot is megcélozhatja, ami pedig minden orosz nacionalista legnagyobb félelme.

The Kremlin’s marriage of convenience with the European far right (in English and Russian)

The Kremlin’s marriage of convenience with the European far right

Putin’s strong-arm tactics in Eastern Ukraine and ‘moral, family-based’ policies have won him ardent support from far-right European groups. But they should not be under any illusions...

Брак по расчёту: Кремль и европейские ультраправые

Тактика применения силы в Восточной Украине и политика, ориентированная на «мораль и семейные ценности» обеспечили Путину ревностную поддержку европейских крайних правых. Но им не стоит обольщаться...

Marine Le Pen, Front National's leader, and Aleksey Pushkov, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Parliament, Moscow, 2013. Pushkov is now under sanctions by the US and Canada

The Quest for an Ideal Youth in Putin’s Russia

My review of two books on the Kremlin-inspired youth movement called Nashi published in Slavonica, Vol. 19 No. 2, October 2013:

The Quest for an Ideal Youth in Putin’s Russia. Vol. 1. Back to Our Future! History, Modernity and Patriotism According to Nashi, 2005-2012. By Ivo MIJNSSEN. Pp. 256. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag. 2012. €34.90. ISBN 978 3 8382 0368

The Quest for an Ideal Youth in Putin’s Russia. Vol. 2. The Search for Distinctive Conformism in the Political Communication of Nashi, 2005-2009. By JUSSI LASSILA. Pp. 236. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag. 2012. €34.90. ISBN 978 3 8382 0415

The Ukrainian protests are about liberty and freedom, and not right-wing extremism

Here's my piece offered to The Guardian's "Comment is free" section, but rejected. I am not surprised because the editors of the "Comment is free" promote only the pro-Kremlin line of the argument. The piece was written 10 days ago.

Almost two centuries ago, in 1822, the National Assembly of Greece, then under Ottoman rule, issued a Declaration of Independence. In particular, it said:

“The war which we are carrying on against the Turk ... is not aimed at the advantage of a single part of the Greek people; it is a national war, a holy war, a war the object of which is to reconquer the rights of individual liberty, of property and honour, rights which the civilized people of Europe, our neighbours, enjoy to-day; rights of which the cruel and unheard of tyranny of the Ottomans would deprive us”.

Had this kind of declaration been written by leaders of a European nation today, the fighters for national independence would have been slammed by two camps. One camp would have been certain pockets of the far left criticizing the declaration for its nationalism and war-mongering. The other camp would have been a certain faction of the far right siding with an oppressor of a subjugated nation. Both camps would have identified the most extreme and violent element of a national liberation struggle and misleadingly extended this element to cover the whole liberation movement.

Чи очікують угорські та польскі праворадикали краху України?

3 лютого, дві праворадикальні організації, угорський "Йоббік" (Jobbik) та польский "Національний Рух" (Ruch Narodowy) випустили спільну заяву, в якій закликали уряди своїх країн «негайно об’єднати зусилля для застосування дипломатичних та національно-політичних засобів для захисту національних меншин, що проживають в Україні, з особливим відношенням до польських та угорських груп».

З усіх організацій та рухів в Україні, лише праворадикальний "Правий Сектор" вирішив відповісти на заяву "Йоббіка" та "Національного Руху". В своїй дуже довгій відповіді, вони зазначають:

Ми вже кілька разів заявляли, що Національна революція в Україні не несе небезпеки для місцевої національної меншини поляків. Так само немає підстав боятися представникам інших національних меншин. Навпаки, ми вважаємо, що держава має забезпечувати реалізацію культурних прав національних меншин за умов їхньої лояльності до титульної нації.

Отож, заява угорських і польських політиків є безпідставною. При цьому вона є не лише антиукраїнською, але й антиєвропейською. Зараз націоналістичні рухи Європи мають шукати максимальної єдності. Особливо це стосується націоналістів Центральної та Східної Європи. Зокрема, представники “Правого сектору” вважають, що повинна бути подоланою ворожнеча між українцями та поляками, українцями та угорцями, українцями та румунами, а також між румунами та угорцями.

Does the Hungarian and Polish far right anticipate Ukraine's downfall?

On the 3rd of February, two far right organisations, Hungarian Jobbik and Polish National Movement (Ruch Narodowy), issued a joint statement in which they called upon their respective governments "to immediately unite their efforts in applying their foreign and national political means to protect the rights of ethnic minorities living in Ukraine, with special regard for the Polish and Hungarian groups".

Of all the organisations and movements in Ukraine, the far right Right Sector decided to respond to Jobbik's and the National Movement's statement. In their lengthy reply, they, in particular, said:

We have already stated a few times that that the National revolution in Ukraine does not pose any threat to the local Polish minority in Ukraine. There is no need for any other ethnic minorities to worry, either. Quite the opposite, we feel the state must guarantee their rights to practice their own culture as long as they are loyal to Ukrainians.

Thus, this statement of certain Hungarian and Polish politicians is baseless. However, the statement itself is not only anti-Ukrainian, it is anti-European. Currently, nationalist movements throughout Europe must promote unity. This is especially true for nationalists in Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, the Right Sector feels that past animosity between Ukrainians and Poles, Ukrainians and Hungarians, Ukrainians and Romanians, as well as Hungarians and Romanians, must be put to rest.

What the West should know about the Euromaidan's far right element - translations

My brief post "What the West should know about the Euromaidan's far right element" has been translated into German, Russian, Greek and Ukrainian:

Was der Westen über die extreme Rechte auf dem Euromaidan wissen sollte

Viele Menschen aus dem Westen stellen Fragen über die Rolle der ukrainischen Ultranationalisten bei den Euromaidan-Protesten in Kiew. Einige angeblich linke Websites wie die World Socialist Web Site veröffentlichen eklatante Lügen über die Euromaidan-Proteste und die Rolle der extremen Rechten. Diese Websites reden russischen Imperialisten das Wort, die alles tun, was sie können, um die Ukraine ihrer bereits geschwächten Unabhängigkeit zu berauben.

1. Wie ich bereits im Artikel „The Ukrainian revolution is european and national“ („Die ukrainische Revolution ist europäisch und national“) schrieb, ist der Euromaidan unter anderem eine nationale Revolution gegen den Imperialismus des Kremls und ein nationalistischer Aufstand gegen Russlands zerstörerischen Einfluss auf die Ukraine. Der Großteil an Unterstützung für die ukrainische extreme Rechte kommt von Bürgern, die kein rechtsextremes Gedankengut pflegen, die es aber nach einer wirklichen Unabhängigkeit der Ukraine verlangt. Das bedeutet, dass es erst möglich werden wird, die extreme Rechte zu neutralisieren, wenn die Ukraine völlige nationale Unabhängigkeit erlangt. Die ständige Bedrohung der ukrainischen Staatlichkeit ist es, die der extremen Rechten Zulauf verschafft, nicht etwa eine vermeintliche Zunahme von rechtsextremen Ansichten in der ukrainischen Gesellschaft. Wie Roger Griffin in Modernism and Fasicsm schrieb, kann es insbesondere aufgrund von „Besetzung, Kolonisierung oder Akten der Aggression, die [eine Gesellschaft] von anderen Gesellschaften erleidet“ zu einem Erstarken von Faschismus kommen (S. 104). Somit sollte ein Kampf gegen Faschismus in der Ukraine immer synonym sein mit dem Kampf gegen die Versuche, das Land zu kolonialisieren. Wer diese beiden Themen zu trennen versucht oder einseitig gegen die ukrainische extreme Rechte schlägt, ohne die dringliche Notwendigkeit einer nationalen Unabhängigkeit anzuerkennen, muss bei seinen Versuchen, die extreme Rechte zu neutralisieren, scheitern. Solche Versuche können die Situation sogar verschlimmern.

2. Zwar ist es richtig, dass die ukrainische extreme Rechte gegen das korrupte und autoritäre Regime von Viktor Janukowitsch und die brutale Polizei, die Demonstranten misshandelt und foltert, Gewalt befürwortet und auch angewendet hat, doch ist die extreme Rechte nicht die einzige gewalttätige Kraft auf dem Euromaidan. Ihr angeschlossen haben sich viele ukrainische Linke und Demokraten, die durch das Ausbleiben von Erfolgen bei dem anfangs gewaltlosen Widerstand gegen das Abrutschen des Landes in eine offene Diktatur radikalisiert wurden. Die Mehrheit der Protestierenden, sich auf Kiews eisig kalten Straßen zusammenfinden, sind Janukowitschs zynischer Ignoranz gegenüber ihren Forderungen überdrüssig und wütend über die Brutalität der Polizei. Ihre Radikalisierung ist eine traurige Reaktion auf die Politik und die Taten des Regimes, die den Anstoß zu einem Nichtangriffspakt zwischen der extremen Linken und der extremen Rechten in der Ukraine gegeben haben, welche sich nun auf derselben Seite der Barrikaden wiederfinden. Kommentatoren, die Gewalt auf dem Euromaidan ausschließlich mit der extremen Rechten in Verbindung bringen, spielen die Ursachen der Radikalisierung der Proteste auf dem Euromaidan herunter und entlasten – gewollt oder ungewollt – das autoritäre Regime von Janukowitsch.

Übersetzer: Tobias Ernst

UCL SSEES Special Research Seminar on Ukraine featuring Andrew Wilson and Anton Shekhovtsov

UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies


SPECIAL RESEARCH SEMINAR ON UKRAINE

Wednesday 5 February 4.30-6pm
Location: Masaryk Senior Common Room
4th floor, UCL SSEES Building, 16 Taviton St London, WC1H 0BW London

Speakers:

Dr. Andrew Wilson
"Euromaidan and After: Where Does Ukraine go From Here?"

Anton Shekhovtsov

"The Ukrainian extreme right and the pro-EU protests"

All welcome including general public. No registration needed.

What the West should know about the Euromaidan's far right element

Many in the West, are asking questions about the involvement of the Ukrainian ultranationalists in the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv. Some allegedly left-wing web-sites, such as the World Socialist Web Site, publish blatant lies about the Euromaidan protests and the role that the far right is playing in them. These web-sites are trying to appease Russian imperialists who are doing everything they can to deprive Ukraine of its already weakened independence.

At the moment, there are two things that the West should understand about the Ukrainian ultranationalists in the context of Euromaidan.

1. As I wrote before, in the article "The Ukrainian revolution is European and national", Euromaidan is, among other things, a national revolution against the Kremlin's imperialism and a nationalist uprising against Russia's destructive influence on Ukraine. The major share of support for the Ukrainian far right comes from those citizens who do not share far right views but urge for Ukraine's true independence. This means that it will only be possible to neutralise the far right after Ukraine gains national independence. The far right is being fuelled by the constant threat to the Ukrainian statehood rather than the alleged growth of extreme right views in the Ukrainian society. As Roger Griffin wrote in his Modernism and Fascism, the rise of fascism may occur, in particular, due to  "occupation, colonization, or acts of aggression inflicted on [a society] by other societies" (p. 104). Thus, a fight against fascism in Ukraine should always be synonymous with the fight against the attempts to colonise the country. Those who separate these two issues or crack down on the Ukrainian far right without recognising the urgent need for national independence will never be successful in their attempts to neutralise the far right. Moreover, they can make the situation worse.

Ultranationalist and anarchist symbols side by side on the battlefield

2. While the Ukrainian far right has indeed endorsed and used violence against Viktor Yanukovych's corrupt authoritarian regime and the brutal police who abuse and torture protesters, they are not the only violent force of Euromaidan. They are joined by many Ukrainian left-wingers and democrats who have become radicalised as a result of the lack of progress of non-violent resistance to the country's slipping into an outright dicatorship. The majority of the protesters who take to Kyiv's dead cold streets are tired of Yanukovych's cynical disregard of their demands and outraged about the police brutality. Their radicalisation is a sad response to the regime's policies and actions which gave an impetus to a non-aggression pact between the Ukrainian far left and far right who are now on the same side of the barricades. Those commentators who associate violence at Euromaidan exclusively with the far right are downplaying the causes of the radicalisation of the Euromaidan protests and - willingly or unwillingly - exonerating Yanukovych's authoritarian regime.

See translations of this short post into German, Russian and Greek here.

"Васильковские террористы", они же бандиты и неонацисты

Последним силовым противостоянием Евромайдана и "Беркута" стало побоище под Киево-Святошинским судом, где 10 января был вынесен приговор трем "васильсковским террористам": Игорю Мосейчуку, Сергею Бевзу и Владимиру Шпаре. Они были признаны виновными в намерении взорвать памятник Ленину в Борисполе в 2011 году, в подготовке теракта и незаконном обращении с оружием и взрывными веществами, а также призывах к свержению конституционного порядка.

К сожалению, большинство людей, которые пришли под здание суда в их поддержку, совершенно не знают кто такие "васильсковские террористы". На момент ареста в 2011 году все трое были членами неонацистской организации "Патриот Украины", а также созданной на его базе Социал-национальной ассамблеи (СНА). Товарищи "васильковских террористов" любят представлять их в качестве "жертв Системы" и "политзаключенных".

Героический образ этих "политзаключенных" рисует даже вроде бы про-демократический "Kyiv Post", который называет их "activists from the Patriot of Ukraine civic movement" и размещает на своем сайте схожее (но "менее нацистское") изображение "патриотов":

Я согласен с оценкой многих комментаторов о том, что "дело васильковских террористов" является сфальсифицированным, но согласен лишь частично. В конце концов, неонацисты из СНА уже уничтожали памятник Ленину в 2010 году в одном из поселков Васильковского района, да и в хранение огнестрельного оружия готов поверить.

Дело в том, что "васильковские террористы" - не только неонацисты, но и обыкновенные бандиты.

Янукович по-прежнему хочет Тягнибока во втором туре?

Украинская ультра-националистка Ирина Фарион продолжает линию своей праворадикальной партии "Свобода", направленную на раскол на Евромайдана.

На Евромайдане "Свобода" занимается скорее не общим делом, направленным на реализацию революционных чаяний граждан, а раскольнической деятельностью, само-пиаром и рекрутированием новых членов.

European extreme right and Russian imperialism

European extreme right and Russian imperialism: Understanding the 50 shades of brown

French and Austrian radical right-wing leaders have recently declared that the EU should not interefere in Ukraine's national sovereignty. Some may consider these statements as a spit in the face of the Ukrainian radical right-wing Svoboda party, which today supports Ukraine's European integration, but in fact these statements reveal a bigger picture.

Pavlo Lapshyn: The transnational lone-wolf terrorist (in English, Ukrainian and Russian)

My article on Pavlo Lapshyn's case of transnational lone-wolf right-wing terrorism is now published in three languages:

The transnational lone-wolf terrorist
Справа Павла Лапшина як приклад транснаціонального праворадикального тероризму (переклала Ірина Доброгорська)
Транс-национальный террорист-одиночка (перевел Дмитрий Колесник)

Articles in Ukrainian and Russian are extended versions of the original English article.
Thanks to the translators!

Music and the Other - The Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice

The Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice on music and the Other, which I guest-edited, is finally out.

Contents

Music and the Other: an introduction
Anton Shekhovtsov

Demonizing and redeeming the gaucho: social conflict, xenophobia and the invention of Argentine national music
Melanie Plesch

Rhapsody in red: Shostakovich and American wartime perceptions of the Soviet Union
Lawrence P. MacCurtain

Germans, Hungarians and the Zigeunerkapelle: performing national enmity in late nineteenth-century Transylvania
Marian Zăloagă

‘Gypsy music’ as music of the Other in European culture
Anna G. Piotrowska

Music as a weapon of ethnopolitical violence and conflict: processes of ethnic separation during and after the break-up of Yugoslavia
Catherine Baker

‘Onward Blackshirts!’ Music and the British Union of Fascists
Graham Macklin

The soundtrack of neo-fascism: youth and music in the National Front
Ryan Shaffer

Mwenye? Muhindi? Mwafrika? Creative encounters with Afro-Asians in Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya
Aaron Louis Rosenberg

Music and the Other: an introduction

My introduction to the Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice on music and the Other is now available online:

Music and the Other: an introduction

Excerpt:

In the contemporary world, music has been used for an ever-growing number of purposes, a process that has followed closely the evolution of humankind itself. As apparently the most comprehensive study, at least to date, in evolutionary musicology shows us, music—from the emergence of human civilization—has been an essential component of most social behaviours: hunting, herding, story-telling, playing, washing, eating, praying, meditating, courting, marrying, healing, burying and so on. Music evolved along with humans’ neural and cognitive mechanisms, as well as with the advance of technology. Indeed, the history of humankind can be partially documented through the music it produced over the millennia, and the ways it used music for a myriad of purposes.

It is remarkable, however, how the uses of music persisted throughout human history. For example, the ancient Greeks considered Apollo a god of both medicine and music, the biblical David was said to rid King Saul of the evil spirit by playing on the harp, ‘Florence Nightingale brought music to hospitals during the Crimean War’, and, just a few years ago, Austria became the first country worldwide to officially recognize music therapy as a health profession. Similar persistence can be registered in many other instances.

I have a number of eprints, so the article can be downloaded for free via this link.