Michael Barkun

Michael Barkun (born April 8, 1938) is an American academic who serves as Professor Emeritus of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, specializing in political and religious extremism and the relationship between religion and violence.

Barkun earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1965.

Barkun has classified conspiracy theories into three kinds:

Barkun discusses four types of groups categorized by the nature of secrecy involved: a Type 1 conspiracy theory refers to a secret group which acts secretly, and a Type 3 conspiracy theory refers to a known group which acts secretly (Types 2 and 4 lie outside of conspiracy theory).

He serves on the editorial boards of Terrorism and Political Violence and Nova Religio, and was the editor of Communal Societies from 1987 to 1994.

He edits the Religion and Politics book series for the Syracuse University Press.

Barkun has acted as a consultant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation; as a member of the Special Advisory Commission to the FBI Critical Incident Response Group from late 1995 to early 1996, he provided training and background presentations on extremist groups.

He has authored a number of books on the subject, including Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement (1996), A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (2003), and Chasing Phantoms: Reality, Imagination, and Homeland Security Since 9/11 (2011).

He won the 2003 Distinguished Scholar award from the Communal Studies Association, and the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights for his book Religion and the Racist Right.

Barkun focuses particularly on millenarian and utopian movements, terrorism and "doomsday weapons", and the contemporary influence of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion decades after it was exposed as a hoax.

His books have been reviewed by The New York Times, The New York Sun, The Montana Professor, and Terrorism and Political Violence.

In his book A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (2003), Barkun dives into the different characteristics of conspiracy theories.

According to him, there are certain attributes that occur in every account of conspiracy.

First, conspiracy negates the possibility that something could happen by chance.

Nothing in a conspiracist worldview is ever due to chance.

Conspiracy theories are created at the root of the statement that nothing happens by accident.

Barkun states that in this view the universe is governed by design rather than randomness, which means that there is no room for accidents, everything is intentional.

Secondly, when it comes to conspiracy, nothing is as it seems.

Conspiracists have to disguise their true intentions and identities through deception.

Therefore, according to conspiracy theorists, the appearance of innocence means nothing.

Lastly, in conspiracy, everything is connected.

Working hand in hand with the claim that nothing is left up to chance, the claim that everything is connected means that patterns are created everywhere in response.

Constant linkage and connection must be created to explain what may seem like accidental.

Furthermore, Barkun works to set the stage for the presence of conspiracist views that leave a large amount of questions unanswered.

All three of these characteristics can be applied to both political and government conspiracies, but also more causally to all types of conspiracy theories.

In a 2004 review, historian Paul S. Boyer wrote that Barkun "knows his way around the arcane world of contemporary conspiracy theorists" more "than any other scholar in America".