The article focuses on the issue of foreign fighters from the Balkan peninsula, and examines the measures that have been taken by governments in the region to combat it. The author asserts that the first ISIS losses and the thinning of the first wave of enthusiastic recruits accompanied with the first disillusioned returnees and changes in public policies and in public discourse (political narrative and narrative of Islamic communities, mass media) caused the unprecedented decline in the number of new recruits.
While the phenomenon of so-called "foreign fighters" is in no way new the past thirty-plus years has shown a marked increase in the numbers of individuals traveling abroad to fight in civil conflicts in the Muslim world. The crisis in Syria (2011-present) has created a massive influx of such individuals going to fight. Of particular concern in western capitals has been the numbers of individuals from those countries that have gone to fight in that conflict which has since crossed the border into neighboring Iraq with the establishment of the socalled "Islamic State" and threatens to broaden the conflict into a larger regional sectarian conflagration. While the numbers of such participants from Western Europe have been greater than those who have gone from the United States and Canada there are legitimate concerns in both Washington, DC, and Ottawa about American and Canadian citizens who have gone—or attempted to go—to fight there and in other locales such as the Maghreb and Somalia. The analysis here will provide some background on the foreign fighter phenomenon, discuss the foreign fighter flow model, explore the issue from both Canadian and US perspectives to include providing details of some original research categorizing the characteristics of a small sample of US and Canadian fighters and those who attempted to go and fight, discuss how both governments have attempted to deal with the issue, and offer some policy prescription for dealing with this issue that is of importance to both international security writ large and domestic security in the US and Canada.
Das Phänomen der Foreign Fighters, sowie die dschihadistischen und salafistischen Szenen, die sich mittlerweile auch in Österreich herausgebildet haben, verdeutlichen die Notwendigkeit einer ernsthaften Auseinandersetzung mit dschihadistischer Radikalisierung, dschihadistischem Extremismus und Terrorismus mit einem sicherheitspolitischen und gesellschaftspolitischen Fokus. Die Kurzanalyse bietet eine Reihe von Handlungsempfehlungen für die Präventions- und Deradikalisierungsarbeit in Österreich an.
Since the first reports detailing the presence of foreigner participating in the Syrian civil war in September 2011, the number of foreign fighters has increased exponentially. Especially European policymakers are worried about the potential threat posed by the presence of hundreds of European foreign fighters in Syria and the possibility that some of them could return to stage an attack. This article examines the challenges European policymakers face when addressing the foreign fighter phenomenon in general, and that of returnees in particular. The article first discusses the complexity of the (potential) threat posed by those that return from the fight in Syria. Next, it outlines the need for and challenge of providing an accurate threat assessment. The authors then present a number of recent ideas and proposals on how to deal with the phenomenon of foreign fighters in Europe. These proposals highlight the need for a mixed or comprehensive approach, which is sensible given the complexity as well as the multidimensional and international nature of the threat. However, it also poses an additional challenge to policymakers pertaining to the implementation of such an approach. This governance challenge is discussed by investigating the possible roles of various actors when dealing with returnees. Based on these findings, the concluding part presents a number of policy recommendations.
Foreign fighters are not a new phenomenon: the Spanish civil war, the conflict in Afghanistan against the Soviet invasion, the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s, and the armed conflicts in Chechnya and Dagestan all attracted significant numbers of so-called foreign fighters. However, the term and phenomenon of 'foreign fighter' gained particular prominence in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks against the United States of America (USA) on account of the presence of 'foreign fighters' among the ranks of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Against this background, 'foreign fighter' became associated and was often treated synonymously with member of international terrorist networks, namely al-Qaeda. As such, 'foreign fighters' are perceived as a major terrorist threat upon return to their countries of origin, i.e. their state of nationality or habitual residence. The fear is that returning 'foreign fighters', who have been trained and experienced in handling weapons and explosives, may plan and carry out terrorist acts or set up new terrorist cells, recruit new members, and provide new funds. Against this background, the unprecedented influx of 'foreign fighters' to the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq repeatedly made headlines as one of the biggest terrorist threats to Western states since 9-11. On 15 August 2014, the United Nations (UN) Security Council adopted Resolution 2170 to specifically address the phenomenon of 'foreign terrorist fighters'. The Geneva Academy Briefing on 'foreign fighters' does not provide a general assessment of the policies and measures adopted to deal with the phenomenon of 'foreign fighters', such as counter-radicalisation initiatives or operational measures to improve border security. Instead, looking at the various international legal questions raised by the phenomenon of 'foreign fighters' and the measures taken to combat this phenomenon, the Geneva Academy Briefing proposes to look at the phenomenon of 'foreign fighters' from the perspective of international law, including ...
