Kasper Braskén

The history of international organisations, transnational social movements, global history, international communism, Weimar Germany, anti-fascism and resistance.

Braskén's ongoing research project: "Towards a Global History of Anti-Fascism: Transnational Civil Society Activism, International Organisations and Identity Politics Beyond Borders, 1922–1945" 

The postdoctoral project is funded by the Academy of Finland (1.9.2017–21.9.2020). 

Latest research articles/chapters: 

Kasper Braskén, “Whether Black or White – United in the Fight!” Connecting the Resistance against Colonialism, Racism, and Fascism in the European Metropoles, 1926–1936, Twentieth Century Communism: A Journal of International History, No. 18 (2020)

Kasper Braskén, '“Make Scandinavia a Bulwark against Fascism!” Hitler’s Seizure of Power and the Transnational Anti-fascist Movement in the Nordic Countries', in Kasper Braskén, Nigel Copsey and David Featherstone (eds.), Anti-Fascism in a Global Perspective. Transnational Networks, Exile Communities, and Radical Internationalism  (London: Routledge, 2020).

Kasper Braskén, '“Aid the Victims of German Fascism!” Transatlantic Networks and the Rise of Anti-Nazism in the USA, 1933–1935', in Braskén, Copsey and Featherstone (eds.) Anti-Fascism in a Global Perspective. Transnational Networks, Exile Communities, and Radical Internationalism  (London: Routledge, 2020).

Kasper Braskén, David Featherstone, Nigel Copsey, ' Towards a Global History of Anti-Fascism: Introduction', in Braskén, Copsey and Featherstone (eds.) Anti-Fascism in a Global Perspective. Transnational Networks, Exile Communities, and Radical Internationalism  (London: Routledge, 2020).

I have co-edited to following publications on the history of #antifascism:

• Kasper Braskén, Johan Lundin, and Nigel Copsey (eds.), Anti-Fascism in the Nordic Countries: New Perspectives, Comparisons and Transnational Connections (London: Routledge, 2019)  / Link: https://www.routledge.com/Anti-fascism-in-the-Nordic-Countries-New-Perspectives-Comparisons-and/Brasken-Copsey-Lundin/p/book/9781138046948

• Kasper Braskén, Nigel Copsey, David Featherstone (eds.) Anti-Fascism in a Global Perspective: Transnational Networks, Exile Communities, and Radical Internationalism (London: Routledge, forthcoming in 2020). The volume includes contributions by Michele L. Louro, Nigel Copsey, Kasper Braskén, Cathy Bergin, João Fábio Bertonha, Sandra Pujals, Jonathan Hyslop, Ariel Mae Lambe, Bernhard H. Bayerlein, David Featherstone, Federico Ferretti, and Hugo García.

• Kasper Braskén, Jonathan Hyslop Neil Roos (eds.) forthcoming special issue ‘Anti-Fascism in Southern Africa 1919-2019’ of the South African Historical Journal: https://networks.h-net.org/node/28765/discussions/6115232/cfp-special-issue-south-african-historical-journal-‘anti-fascism  

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After receiving his PhD degree in April 2014 from Åbo Akademi University Braskén was invited to publish his dissertation in the book series “Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements,” edited by Stefan Berger and Holger Nehring. The book analyses several transnational solidarity campaigns organised by the International Workers' Relief (Internationale Arbeiterhilfe) in the Weimar Republic. It makes a contribution to the history of solidarity movements and international communism, especially highlighting the role of the German communist Wilhelm ‘Willi’ Münzenberg (1889–1940) as a propagandist and political organiser. The study is based on extensive basic research in Moscow and Berlin. The monograph was published in August 2015: 

• Kasper Braskén: The International Workers' Relief, Communism, and Transnational Solidarity. Willi Münzenberg in Weimar Germany (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan).

Further results originating from Braskén's PhD research include the following articles:

• Kasper Braskén, Bernhard H. Bayerlein and Holger Weiss, ‘Transnational and Global Perspectives on International Communist Solidarity Organizations’, in Holger Weiss (ed.), International Communism and Transnational Solidarity: Radical Networks, Mass Movements and Global Politics, 1919–1939 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. 1–27.
• Kasper Braskén, ‘In Pursuit of Global International Solidarity? The Transnational Networks of the International Workers’ Relief, 1921–1935,’ International Communism and Transnational Solidarity. Radical Networks, Mass Movements and Global Politics, 1919–1939, edited by Holger Weiss (Leiden: Brill, 2017): 130–167.
• Kasper Braskén, ‘The British Miners’ and General Strike of 1926: Problems and Practices of Radical International Solidarity’, in Holger Weiss (ed.), International Communism and Transnational Solidarity: Radical Networks, Mass Movements and Global Politics, 1919–1939 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. 168–190 

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As a post-doctoral researcher Braskén has moved on to the study of transnational and global anti-fascism.

He was first awarded a research grant by the Kone Foundation in Finland (2014–2016). The project was titled: “The Origins of Anti-Fascism: Transnational Movements against Fascism, Nazism and the ‘White Terror’ in Europe, 1923–1939.” It resulted among others in the following publications: 

• Kasper Braskén, ‘Making Antifascism Transnational. The Origins of Communist and Socialist Articulations of Resistance in Europe, 1923–1924,’ Contemporary European History 25, no. 4 (2016): pp. 573–96. 
• Kasper Braskén, ‘Communist Antifascism and Transnational Fascism: Comparisons, Transfers, Entanglements,’ in Fascism without Borders. Transnational Connections and Cooperation between Movements and Regimes in Europe from 1918 to 1945, edited by Arnd Bauerkämper and Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe (New York: Berghahn, 2017): pp. 288–311.

Braskén has been visiting researcher at the Freie Universität Berlin (2014–2015 & 2017–2019), Royal Holloway University of London (2016), and Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF), Potsdam (2008).

Global history; revolutions; protest movements, international communism, antifascism, fascism