Luke Baumgartner

Luck Baumgartner

Research Fellow

Program on Extremism at George Washington University

Luke Baumgartner is a Research Fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, whose research interests include domestic violent extremism, white supremacist movements, and the role of military veterans in political violence. Luke received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Upon graduation, he received his commission into the United States Army, where he served as an active-duty Field Artillery Officer for four years. Following his honorable discharge from active duty service in 2021, he enrolled in Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, where he received his Master of Arts in Security Studies. 

Interviewer: Mikkel Dack, RCHGHR/History

Can you begin by telling me a bit about yourself—professional background, military service, institutional affiliations, research interests?

I currently serve as a Research Fellow at the Program on Extremism (PoE) at George Washington University, where I primarily focus on right-wing extremist movements and actors. Before I came on with the PoE, I briefly worked at a pro-democracy veterans’ non-profit organization, where I managed the Targeted Violent Prevention working group. Before I was involved in the Countering/Preventing Violent Extremism (C/PVE) research space, I was an active duty U.S. Army Field Artillery Officer for four years, from 2017 to 2021. I left the service to pursue my Master’s Degree in Security Studies at Georgetown University, where my focus was on terrorism and sub-state violence.

What originally drew you to studying extremism and political violence?

I don’t recall any one specific incident or “aha moment” that drew me to the subject, but as far as I can remember, since high school, I have always had an interest in the “extreme” side of politics. My AP Government teacher in high school was a huge influence on my decision to get into political science, so I pursued that all through my undergraduate and graduate studies. During undergrad, I completed a regional concentration in the Middle East and North Africa. Of course, during this time, ISIS was dominating the news cycle, so I became deeply interested in Islamist and Jihadist movements and ideologies. I had a break from studying the subject while I was in the military, but my interest piqued again after the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, and I noticed how many veterans were involved. I watched the events unfold on live TV while I was at work, so sitting there in my uniform and seeing what happened was a bit of a surreal experience. As I progressed through my graduate studies, I realized just how prevalent the threat from far-right extremism was in the U.S., so I threw myself into studying the movement and developed an academic obsession with the topic.

Much of your earlier work has examined white supremacist movements and the role of military veterans in political violence in the United States. What have been your key findings within these two avenues of research?

Some of the overlaps that I’ve found while researching these topics are just how prevalent veterans are throughout nearly every level of participation in political violence, particularly in the far-right. One thing that stood out to me was just how many white supremacist and far-right groups were led by veterans, such as George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party (ANP), Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations, Harold Covington and the National Socialist White Peoples’ Party (NSWPP). And the list goes on. What I found especially interesting was how these veterans used their leadership positions or general participation as a way of fulfilling some sort of void in their professional lives. If you take a look at some of these groups, their veteran leaders never saw actual combat in support of the U.S., so they decided to bring the fighting to the streets. Louis Beam and Timothy McVeigh are some of the obvious exemptions to this rule, but the trend is much more common in contemporary groups and movements. Just like we saw a spike in participation among veterans after the Vietnam War, I fear we are currently facing a similar issue with veterans from the Global War on Terror (GWOT).

What project are you working on currently? What inspired you to pursue this topic?

My current project is putting together a comprehensive database of Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) offenders in the U.S. Given just how much attention the topic has garnered in mainstream media, it’s important that parents, practitioners, and policymakers have access to objective analysis and data to make informed decisions. Choosing to pursue this topic is important to me because many of these offenders are very young and are easily captured by these decentralized online communities that traffic in some of the worst content imaginable.

Has your research uncovered anything significant thus far?

I would say the most significant datapoint I’ve uncovered is just how young and diverse the offenders are. Many of them are under the age of 18 and come from a wide assortment of backgrounds. The demographics defy the usual expectations we have when it comes to domestic extremism: we typically think of young, disgruntled white males. That does hold true in some regards to NVEs, but there are an increasing number of young women involved in these communities—not just as victims, but as perpetrators and abusers.

What do you hope to achieve with your research, both within the academic community and in terms of its impact on society as a whole?

Within academia, I’m hoping to make valuable contributions to the wide body of literature on extremism by carving out a niche interest for myself. When it comes to veterans, there is a dearth of research on the topic, which I think is wholly misguided. Veterans are an integral part of our society, and, unfortunately, have an outsized role in extremist violence in the U.S. The more we can do to combat their radicalization, the better off we’ll be.

Are there emerging trends in extremism that you think are underreported or misunderstood? What areas of extremism research do you think will become more important in the next 5–10 years?

One emerging trend I see as underreported is the role that the state plays in perpetuating extremism. What was fringe 10 years ago is now mainstream, with big-time influencers and politicians repeating the very same talking points that would have only found a receptive audience on sites like Stormfront or 4chan. Part of what I see as the impetus for the frantic conversations surrounding immigration and immigration enforcement is a full-throated embrace of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, not only by far-right influencers, but government officials as well. If they didn’t wholeheartedly believe in it, then I think the fallout from Minneapolis and other major cities wouldn’t be as harsh. Insofar as what will be important in the next 5-10 years, I think that how the U.S. overcomes what is an extremely turbulent time, unlike anything we’ve seen before, will be this generation’s defining moment. How do we deradicalize? How do we, for lack of a better term, “deprogram” those who bought into extremist narratives? What are the legal and social ramifications for those who participated? These are the questions that will have to be answered, and it will be uncomfortable for many.

How do you think future generations of scholars and activists can build on the work you’re doing? What advice do you have for those entering this field?

There are a number of ways to build on or even improve on the work that I’m currently doing. Not everyone will approach my areas of interest from the same perspective, so bringing in fresh ideas is always welcome. Activists have the skills to translate what are sometimes wonky, academic-sounding products and distill them into everyday language. I can’t expect the 9-5 worker to take the time to sit down with theories and materials I interact with every day; they have families, jobs, and other more pressing material concerns to attend to, and that’s where the activists come in. My advice for those entering the field is to maintain an open mind about what subjects you might want to work on. When I was in grad school, I was all-in on jihadism but really fell in love with studying right-wing extremism. While I made a pretty drastic pivot in terms of subject matter expertise, I’m still able to analyze and converse with others on a number of topics that are outside my comfort zone. That’s a long-winded way of saying that you don’t want to pigeonhole yourself, as tempting as it is. You have to be adaptable to changing trends and social circumstances.