Far-right and hateful extremist movements motivated by white supremacy, xenophobia, anti-LGBTQ beliefs, antisemitism, religious discrimination, and gender bias have been growing in the U.S., in the last decade, and more recently largely due to Trump’s and Project 2025’s commitment to undermining the rule of law and growing an authoritarian state. Europe, Latin America, and other parts of the globe, are also seeing far-right and authoritarian ideas creep into governing policies, which are increasingly openly embraced by the politically powerful.

Launched in 2020, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) was founded by Heidi Beirich and Wendy Via to fill a critical gap in countering the transnational spread of far-right extremism and hate, particularly U.S.-based activity that is exported to other countries and across borders. These networks have grown increasingly coordinated, well-funded, and politically influential across borders.

Heidi and Wendy are both veterans of the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the most prestigious civil rights organizations in the U.S., where they worked for nearly two decades on the pressing civil and human rights issues of our time, specifically the white supremacy-based hate and extremism that affects people’s and communities’ daily lives and infiltrates our public systems, undermining marginalized communties and our democracy.

GPAHE tackles the issues of spreading far-right extremism, political violence, and growing authoritarianism by working to reduce the terrorization of marginalized communities and our society, and by tackling systemic problems rooted in hate in our governments and societies. As we’ve seen in recent years in the U.S. and around the world, hate and extremism can no longer be separated from mainstream politics, nor can authoritarianism be dismissed as an emerging threat—it is already here, embedded in policy agendas, international alliances, and the exercise of state power.

Over the past few years, GPAHE’s investigations and analysis have documented a sharp escalation in the mainstreaming of extremist ideas—most notably in the United States, where Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian regime has aligned itself with white nationalist, Christian nationalist, and anti-democratic forces. GPAHE’s long-term investigation into Project 2025—an anti-democratic, far-right policy blueprint developed by the Heritage Foundation and embraced by Trump’s allies—has revealed how it codifies these ideologies into a governing agenda aimed at dismantling civil rights protections, targeting LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities, women, and people of color, undermining the very foundations of democracy. It is patently obvious that these agendas are having a negative global impact. We can see it in examples like Brazil’s and Germany’s own “January 6” events, the rampant dismantling of LGTBQ+ rights and access to healthcare in Africa, as well as widespread bigotry against Muslims, Jews, and immigrants.

GPAHE has also exposed the alarming growth of the global neo-Nazi movement, including the rapid expansion of Active Clubs—organized networks operating across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. These groups recruit and train for violence, coordinate internationally, and use digital platforms to radicalize young people, often with tacit approval or neglect from governments and tech companies.

In confronting this global crisis, GPAHE continues to demand accountability and urgent action to preserve democracy and protect vulnerable communities worldwide. In addition to subject matter expertise, we bring together broad networks who work on these issues in the policy, technology, media, and academic worlds. We also have considerable expertise in nonprofit management, strategic planning, coalition building, communications, media, social media, and activist engagement campaigns. Perhaps most important of all, GPAHE brings a much-needed progressive voice to this area of work and is grounded in human and civil rights perspectives.