Assessing Foreign Fighters from the Caucasus Region in Syria and Iraq

This research examines Caucasian militants who have fought in Syria and Iraq since 2011. The central research question that this project seeks to address is: what led foreign fighters from the Caucasus to participate in the hostilities in Syria and Iraq? The proposed research will examine other interlinked topics such as the role of ideology, religion and kinship, and an impact of political opportunity, local networks and 'framing' on the mobilisation of a large number of foreign fighters. The conceptual framework for the research project will draw on social movement theory and work on transnational activism and foreign fighters. The methodological approach will be interpretative, while the data collection and analysis will draw on case study research. The data will be subdivided into three periods: before, during, and after the Syrian conflict. This project furthers knowledge in the areas discussed above in three ways. First, it will provide an in-depth case study analysis of foreign fighters from the Caucasus region. Second, the proposed study aims to identify domestic and external factors that have had a significant impact on the mobilisation of foreign fighters from the Caucasus region. The third and arguably most exciting contribution stems from integrating empirical material into work on the dynamics and patterns of the mobilisation of foreign fighters from different regions and language communities.