The Phenomenon of Foreign Fighting Revisited: Have Motivations for Foreign Fighting Changed?

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

During the past decade, the flow of foreign fighters into conflict zones has emerged as a serious problem deserving policy intervention. Based on the latent content analysis of 89 documents that belonged to foreign fighters, which were collected by Turkish security agencies, we examined the motivational factors that influenced the mobilization of foreign fighters into Syria. Informed by the existing literature on foreign fighting, the analysis revealed that the decision to engage in foreign fighting was influenced by (1) the peer pressure coming from the religious networks, (2) socialization with IS fighters, (3) the low levels of risk associated with travel, (4) favorable life conditions, and (5) the opportunity to exact revenge. Our findings indicated that Turkish individuals’ decision to foreign fighting is predominantly influenced by the peer pressure coming from the preexisting networks—the risk of being acknowledged as disloyal, coward, hypocrite, and the risk of exclusion from religious networks influenced the way Turkish foreign fighters perceived the seriousness and necessity of foreign fighting.

Authors

• Marissa Halley Fleenor, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee

• Ashley Jo Wichern, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee