The last decade saw an immense flurry of interest concerning the issue of
foreign (terrorist) fighters. As ISIS gained control over significant areas


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CEP Webinar: “The Logistics Of Foreign (Terrorist) Fighters From Three
Ideological Backgrounds”

(Berlin/New York, N.Y.) – The last decade saw an immense flurry of interest
concerning the issue of foreign (terrorist) fighters. As ISIS gained control
over significant areas in Iraq and Syria, a significant flow of foreign
recruits occurred. They traveled thousands of miles to reach the conflict zone
and join the nascent “Caliphate.” These foreign terrorist fighters were
counted, their motivations debated and reassessed, their radicalization
pathways scrutinized. In parallel, foreign fighters from the extreme left-wing
milieu traveled to join Kurdish groups in Syria and extreme right-wing foreign
fighters joined both sides of the conflict in the Ukraine. These two additional
flows of foreign fighters received less public attention.



The logistics of becoming a foreign (terrorist) fighter, i.e. organization and
preparation of their travel, has been less in the public spotlight. The
questions of how they got there, by what means of transport, what route they
took, how it was all financed, who might have been behind the travel’s
facilitation seemed of less interest compared to studying the fighters’
radicalization profiles. The travel’s (lack of) success, potential close calls
on the way, the reception after arrival, and cultural acclimatization to new
surroundings sometimes featured in the studies devoted to the fighters but have
not been assessed in a separate study.



This webinar aims to bridge this knowledge gap concerning the travel logistics
underpinning the flow of foreign recruits and provides a comparative
perspective while looking at the same issues for three sets of foreign
(terrorist) fighters: extreme Islamist terrorist foreign fighters, extreme
right-wing (heading to Ukraine), and extreme left-wing (heading to Syria)
foreign fighters.



The webinar will be conducted in English via Zoom on the



30th of September 2020: 10:00 a.m. ET / 16:00 CEST



Four experts will present the logistics of foreign fighters coming from the
three ideological milieus:



Asya Metodieva, researcher, Institute of International Relations, Prague, will
cover the travel logistics of foreign terrorist fighters from the Balkan from
theextremist Islamist milieu.



Pieter van Ostaeyen, KU Leven, PhD candidate will cover the travel logistics
for Western European foreign terrorist fighters from the extremist Islamist
milieu.



Kacper Rekawek, affiliated researcher at the Counter Extremism Project and
Associate Fellow at GLOBSEC will address the travel logistics of foreign
fighters from theextreme right-wing milieu.



Henry Tuck, Head of Policy & Research, Institute of Strategic Dialogue,
London, will address the travel logistic of foreign fighters from theanti-ISIS
milieu. 



David Malet, associate professor, American University, Washington D.C., will
act as a discussant.



The event will be moderated by Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director,
Counter Extremism Project.



Participants will have the opportunity to discuss the issues with the speakers
following their respective presentations.



If you would like to take part in the webinar, please register via this link:

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