Returning Islamist Foreign Fighters

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. The Returnee Challenge

   • Elena Pokalova

   Pages 1-9

3. Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq: Aberration from History or History Repeated?

   • Elena Pokalova

   Pages 11-58

4. Foreign Fighters After the Conflict Ends

   • Elena Pokalova

   Pages 59-77

5. Foreign Fighter Returnees from Syria and Iraq

   • Elena Pokalova

   Pages 79-104

6. Dealing with the Challenge: Responses to Foreign Fighters and Foreign Fighter Returnees

   • Elena Pokalova

   Pages 105-135

7. Prosecution of Foreign Fighter Returnees

   • Elena Pokalova

   Pages 137-164

8. Women, Jihad, and Female Returnees

   • Elena Pokalova

   Pages 165-194

9. Child Returnees

   • Elena Pokalova

   Pages 195-216

10. Moving Forward

    • Elena Pokalova

    Pages 217-222

11. Back Matter

    Pages 223-242

    PDF

This book examines the challenges foreign fighter returnees from Syria and Iraq pose to Western countries. A number of returnees have demonstrated that they are willing to use violence against their home countries, and some have already staged terrorist attacks on Western soil on apparent orders from ISIS. Through the historical context of previous waves of mobilizations of Islamist foreign fighters, the author tracks the experiences of returnees from previous conflicts and discusses the major security challenges associated with them. The book analyzes the major approaches implemented by Western countries in response to foreign fighter returnees, discusses the prosecution of returnees, and evaluates the corresponding challenges of prison radicalization.

• foreign fighters
• women in jihad
• returnees rehabilitation
• Syria
• Iraq
• child returnees

“Pokalova’s book is an important quest to understand a form of terrorism that still poses perils to the West and should not be taken lightly.” (C. C. Lovett, Choice, Vol. 58 (1), September, 2020)

• College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University, Washington, USA

  Elena Pokalova

Elena Pokalova is Associate Professor of Security Studies at the College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University, USA. Her research areas include terrorism, radicalization, countering violent extremism, ethnic conflict, and the Caucasus. 

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