Balkan Fighters in the Syrian War

This book examines the recruitment of foreign fighters from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo to Syria and Iraq from 2012 to 2015,using social movement approaches and concepts of triggering mechanisms and pleasure in agency. It shows how state-fragility and the transitional period can fuel radicalization,and how an incomplete post-war transition can create a wider enabling web for recruitment.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 184 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive book delves into the intricate process of recruiting foreign fighters from the Western Balkans, particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, to Syria and Iraq from 2012 to 2015. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with foreign fighters and their families, as well as a range of relevant stakeholders, it sheds light on the various processes and circumstances that led to these individuals departing from their home countries and joining extremist groups in the Middle East. By drawing on the theories of social movement approaches, particularly contentious politics literature, the author explores the concept of triggering mechanisms, which refer to the enabling conditions that make radicalization and departure possible. Additionally, the book employs the notion of pleasure in agency to delve into the individual motivations behind these fighters' decisions.

Furthermore, the book demonstrates how a broader state-fragility within the context of the post-Yugoslav wars and the transitional period that never ended aided radicalization. It also highlights how an incomplete process of post-war transition can fuel the process of political and religious radicalization, creating a wider enabling web for recruitment. This book will be of immense interest to students and scholars of Southeast European politics and foreign policy, post-war democratic transition, security policy, and radicalization more broadly.

Weight: 453g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367633813