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The RW Lineage

The Illiberal International // A Genealogy // Artivist.Media
The Machine We’re Inside

The Illiberal International

A nine-era genealogy of transatlantic right collaboration, from the Holy Alliance of 1815 to the Trump–Orbán axis of 2026. Two hundred and eleven years. Same project. Different branding.

Project Hub 9 Field Notes / 1 Relationship Tree v2 / April 11, 2026

The story begins with a question: when historians of the future write about the moment the liberal international order cracked, where will they say the cracking started? In 2016 with Trump and Brexit? In 2010 with the rise of Orbán? In 1989 with the post-Soviet right’s quiet capture of Eastern European institutions? In 1981 with Reagan, Thatcher, and the World Anti-Communist League? In 1947 with Mont Pelerin? In 1933 with Mussolini’s Fascist International conference at Montreux? In 1864 with the Syllabus of Errors? In 1815 with Metternich and the Holy Alliance?

The honest answer is that the cracking is the architecture. The illiberal international is not a recent phenomenon and not a new network. It is the post-Cold War rebrand of a continuous, transnational, counter-revolutionary project that has reorganized itself roughly every two generations since 1815, around a different named enemy each time — Jacobinism, then liberalism, then Bolshevism, then “globalism,” then “the woke.” The personnel networks, the donor ecosystem, the intellectual canon, and in many cases the literal buildings have been continuous.

This project maps that continuity. Nine field notes, one for each major era. One relationship tree, drawing the operational spine. Eventually, drilldown pages for the people, organizations, donors, and intellectual traditions that bind the eras together. The current installment in the sequence — what is happening in Budapest as you read this — is the latest chapter, not the first.

Master Timeline

// THE ILLIBERAL INTERNATIONAL // 1815—2026 // ERA I • 1815—1848 The Holy Alliance Metternich · de Maistre · Carlsbad Decrees · Verona enemy: Jacobinism / liberalism / nationalism // ERA II • 1864—1914 Syllabus & Race Science Pius IX · Maurras · Madison Grant · Stoddard · Galton enemy: secularism / racial mixing / mass democracy // ERA III • 1919—1945 The Fascist International CAUR Montreux · Ford · Lindbergh · Coughlin · Bund enemy: Bolshevism / Jews / liberal democracy // ERA IV • 1945—1966 Ratlines & Paperclip Vatican corridors · Gehlen · Perón · Hudal · von Braun enemy: Soviet communism (and the truth about WWII) // ERA V • 1966—1991 The World Anti-Communist League Singlaub · Coors · Moon · Pearson · McCain · Reagan the operational spine — death squads, Iran-Contra, Heritage // ERA VI • 1968—1989 Condor / Gladio / Chicago Boys Pinochet · Friedman · Delle Chiaie · Stroessner · Banzer the laboratory: neoliberal-authoritarian fusion // ERA VII • 1968—present Nouvelle Droite & Metapolitics de Benoist · GRECE · Dugin · Camus · Bannon · Spencer the intellectual rebrand: Gramsci of the right // ERA VIII • 1989—2016 The Post-89 Rebrand WLFD · Heritage · CNP · Scaife · Mercer · Orbán’s Fidesz enemy: globalism / multiculturalism / the EU // ERA IX • 2016—NOW The Illiberal International Trump · Orbán · Putin · Modi · Milei · Meloni · Vance · Hazony enemy: liberal democracy itself · YOU ARE HERE de Maistre Maurras Schmitt Gehlen Singlaub Friedman Coors Hazony ▊ vertical spine = continuous infrastructure ▊ dotted arcs = bridge figures ▊ red rings = pivotal eras
Master Timeline v1 / Vertical spine = continuous transnational infrastructure / Dotted arcs = bridge figures connecting eras / Pulsing nodes = pivotal moments

Field Notes

// I
1815—1848
The Holy Alliance
Metternich’s Congress System builds the original transnational counter-revolutionary infrastructure. Joseph de Maistre lays the philosophical foundation. The first illiberal international, signed by emperors, is more or less indistinguishable from the current one in its arguments.
// II
1864—1914
Syllabus & Race Science
Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors formalizes Catholic counter-modernism. Eugenics builds a transatlantic feedback loop linking Cold Spring Harbor to Munich. Madison Grant becomes Hitler’s “Bible.” The intellectual ancestors of Vermeule, Deneen, and Camus are all here.
// III
1919—1945
The Fascist International
CAUR’s Montreux conference (1934) attempts a literal fascist Comintern. Henry Ford gets a Nazi medal. Lindbergh and Coughlin run the original “America First.” Twenty thousand Bund members fill Madison Square Garden under a portrait of George Washington flanked by swastikas.
// IV
1945—1966
Ratlines & Paperclip
The Vatican, the Red Cross, and Western intelligence agencies smuggle thousands of Nazi and Ustaše war criminals to Argentina, the US, and Bolivia. Reinhard Gehlen’s network becomes the BND. The bridge generation that survives 1945 reassembles inside the anti-communist apparatus.
// V
1966—1991
The World Anti-Communist League
The most important and least-discussed organizational ancestor of today’s illiberal international. Founded in Taipei, funded by Coors and the Moonies, run by John Singlaub, populated by Latin American death squads and European neo-fascists. Iran-Contra is a WACL operation. Heritage Foundation is the WACL donor network’s policy arm.
// VI
1968—1989
Condor / Gladio / Chicago Boys
Three parallel laboratories. Operation Condor coordinates state terror across the Southern Cone. Gladio runs the “strategy of tension” in Italy. The Chicago Boys impose neoliberal economics under Pinochet’s dictatorship — the original neoliberal-authoritarian template, direct ancestor of Milei.
// VII
1968—present
Nouvelle Droite & Metapolitics
Alain de Benoist and GRECE rebuild the European right’s intellectual apparatus by stealing Gramsci’s playbook. The result becomes the source code for Aleksandr Dugin’s Eurasianism, Renaud Camus’s “Great Replacement,” Bannon’s “Movement,” and most of the vocabulary of contemporary NatCon.
// VIII
1989—2016
The Post-89 Rebrand
The Berlin Wall falls. WACL becomes the World League for Freedom and Democracy. The anti-communist apparatus pivots to anti-globalism. Orbán’s Fidesz emerges from anti-communist student networks and inverts itself into the model illiberal regime. Mercer money meets the Council for National Policy.
// IX
2016—now
The Illiberal International
Trump, Orbán, Putin, Modi, Bolsonaro, Meloni, Milei, and the rest. NatCon, CPAC Hungary, MCC Brussels, Patriots.EU. The antifa designation cascade. The Vance rescue mission. The Ceiling Test. You are here.

Relationship Trees

// T1
1945—2026
WACL → Heritage → NatCon
The operational spine. A Pete Frame–style family tree showing the personnel and institutional continuity from postwar anti-communist networks through Coors-funded Heritage and the Council for National Policy to the current NatCon / CPAC / MCC apparatus. The names that connect Reagan to Vance.

Additional trees forthcoming: Eugenics & race science (1865–1945) · Catholic integralism (1864–2026) · Nouvelle Droite intellectual lineage (1968–2026) · Donor networks (Coors / Scaife / Mercer / Thiel) · The fossil-fuel right (1973–2026)

The Latest Installment

The most recent field note in this sequence is not part of the historical genealogy — it is the present moment, the test the illiberal international is failing or passing right now in Budapest. It is published separately and linked here as the live edge of the project.

// X
April 11, 2026
The Ceiling Test
Heroes’ Square, April 10, 2026. One hundred thousand young Hungarians chanting a 1956 refrain at the flagship government of the illiberal international. Two days later, the test of whether the right has hit its ceiling — or only its inflection point.
Two centuries.
Same project. Different branding.

How to read this

This project is built to be read in any order. You can start at Era I and walk forward through the genealogy chronologically — that is the canonical reading and the one I’d recommend for the first pass. You can start at Era IX and walk backwards from the present, watching each piece of today’s machinery resolve into the older piece it was rebranded from. You can drop into Era V directly if you want the operational spine. Or you can read the WACL relationship tree first, see who is connected to whom, and let the connections drive your curiosity into the era pages.

Entities marked like this are placeholder hooks for future drilldown pages. As the project grows, each named person, organization, donor, and movement will get its own page. For now, hover and remember the name. The map is being drawn.