The Alternative for Germany's Foreign Policy: A Love Affair with Russia and Israel?

The heterogeneity in the far-right parties’ foreign policy positions becomes especially visible when they face a dilemma of which side(s) to take in highly salient military conflicts that currently shape European and international politics: the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Comparative studies have argued that these parties react differently given ideological and strategic concerns related to anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Russophilia, and anti-Atlanticism and their positions are shaped by both domestic and international contexts. However, the impact of internal differences, which could lead to an ambivalent general position of a party on an issue, remains understudied. This study fills this gap by concentrating on an illustrative case of one of the most divided far-right parties, the Alternative for Germany (AfD). As the AfD is often depicted as a staunch supporter of Russia and Israel, the study also empirically assesses the plausibility of these arguments.