Start Date
4-23-2018 2:00 PM
End Date
4-23-2018 2:30 PM
Disciplines
Security
Description
Thousands of foreign fighters originating from the Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo have joined the ranks of ISIS, traveling to the Middle East and return with terrorist training. They are a danger to their country of origin as well as the larger European community because they are ideologically radicalized and often hide in plain sight until an attack has been executed. In 2014, the number of radicalized individuals traveling to the Middle East has decreased dramatically. Similarly, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo introduced counter-terrorism measures around the same time to combat radicalization and increase safety. Research concerning whether or not this decrease of foreign fighters from the Balkans stem from a decrease in the relative power of ISIS or new counterterrorism strategies has been lacking. The research done in this paper sought to understand why the decrease in foreign fighters occurred and whether or not the policies implemented in the Western Balkans played a significant role in the reduction. However, this paper is unable to determine what has caused the decrease in foreign fighters. ISIS’s decline in power and drop in recruitment techniques occurred later than the 2013 decline in foreign fighters. The policies enacted by national governments in the Western Balkans are too drastically different from each other to have produced such succinct results across borders. Likewise, the policies were enacted just before the 2014 and have not all been effective combating foreign fighters making it unlikely that they are responsible for the decrease.
Declining Number of Foreign Fighters in the Balkans
Thousands of foreign fighters originating from the Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo have joined the ranks of ISIS, traveling to the Middle East and return with terrorist training. They are a danger to their country of origin as well as the larger European community because they are ideologically radicalized and often hide in plain sight until an attack has been executed. In 2014, the number of radicalized individuals traveling to the Middle East has decreased dramatically. Similarly, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo introduced counter-terrorism measures around the same time to combat radicalization and increase safety. Research concerning whether or not this decrease of foreign fighters from the Balkans stem from a decrease in the relative power of ISIS or new counterterrorism strategies has been lacking. The research done in this paper sought to understand why the decrease in foreign fighters occurred and whether or not the policies implemented in the Western Balkans played a significant role in the reduction. However, this paper is unable to determine what has caused the decrease in foreign fighters. ISIS’s decline in power and drop in recruitment techniques occurred later than the 2013 decline in foreign fighters. The policies enacted by national governments in the Western Balkans are too drastically different from each other to have produced such succinct results across borders. Likewise, the policies were enacted just before the 2014 and have not all been effective combating foreign fighters making it unlikely that they are responsible for the decrease.
