Pathways of Foreign Fighters: Policy Options and Their (Un)Intended Consequences

The phenomenon of foreign fighters is high on international agendas as one of the most pressing transnational security issues of our time. European governments have tried to respond to this development by designing various policies, focusing not only on stopping potential foreign fighters but also on limiting the possible threat posed by returning fighters. In this Policy Brief, ICCT Fellows Dr. Alastair Reed, Ms. Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn and Prof. Dr. Edwin Bakker look at the (un)intended consequences of these policies on the pathways foreign fighters could take once they have arrived in Syria or Iraq. In the first part, the authors identify different possible pathways. In the second part, they provide an overview of the main trends in policies pursued by European governments to deal with these foreign fighters. They specifically focus on four policies: reintegration programmes, prosecution of returning foreign fighters, revoking nationality of foreign fighters and finally, military interventions against foreign fighters. In the final part, the authors use the earlier identified pathways as a conceptual tool to look at the (un)intended consequences of these four policies.